Comment by scifibestfi | Hacker News Reader

Comment by scifibestfi | Hacker News Reader

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We're seeing the most successful Big Pharma marketing campaign since OxyContin.

The Promotion and Marketing of OxyContin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy

> From 1996 to 2001, Purdue conducted more than 40 national pain-management and speaker-training conferences at resorts in Florida, Arizona, and California. More than 5000 physicians, pharmacists, and nurses attended these all-expenses-paid symposia, where they were recruited and trained for Purdue's national speaker bureau.

> One of the cornerstones of Purdue's marketing plan was the use of sophisticated marketing data to influence physicians’ prescribing.

> Purdue “aggressively” promoted the use of opioids for use in the “non-malignant pain market.” A much larger market than that for cancer-related pain, the non–cancer-related pain market constituted 86% of the total opioid market in 1999. Purdue's promotion of OxyContin for the treatment of non–cancer-related pain contributed to a nearly tenfold increase in OxyContin prescriptions

> A consistent feature in the promotion and marketing of OxyContin was a systematic effort to minimize the risk

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2622774/

That article starts with:

> Controlled drugs, with their potential for abuse and diversion, can pose public health risks that are different from—and more problematic than—those of uncontrolled drugs when they are overpromoted and highly prescribed.

These drugs are not of that nature.

No, but the ADD/ADHD stims are. I also had nausea all day and could not eat more than approx 1. slice of pizza for lunch and dinner up til age 16 on days that I took the smallest dose of methylpenidate. In summer, when I was not on it, I actually resumed average eating and growth. My growth chart, before age 8 starting it, was right around 50th percentile in height/weight, and by age 16, was was around bottom 5th percentile.

Another anecdote, I was on ADD meds from 5th grade through college and I'm at 99th percentile height.

Did you experience nausea on them? Was it methylphenidate? Which formulation and dose? I had 1yr ritalin, 1yr adderall, and 6 yrs concerta 18mg. At this point the sight of "alza 18" on a small tan cylinder makes me want to puke.

I took all of the above.

It didn't give me nausea but it did give me dry mouth and made me not really want to eat. However, when I got home I was ravenous and would always eat two dinners.

I’m sorry you were misdiagnosed and/or mistreated. For what it’s worth, I’ve taken a moderate dose of amphetamines for years and I’m still obese.

That OxyCOntin turned out to be a mass killer does not imply that these drugs are disasters.

Similarly, that Penicillin turned out to save millions of lives, doesn't mean that these drugs will be very beneficial.

Every day is a new day, every event a potential surprise...

Of course it doesn't imply anything directly about the drug, but it does implicate the pharma industry in willingness to distribute drugs that have long term side effects.

> Every day is a new day, every event a potential surprise...

This is a thought terminating cliche, and has no bearing on pharmacology and societal impact.

These drugs are about to be very heavily prescribed, and widely introduced - when, in fact, they should be slowly rolled out to those who need them the most. People who should be given this drug are those whose weight is so severe that it has immediate effects on negative health outcomes.

There are going to be people who want to drop a couple of BMI points in time for Summer without eating and exercise, and any doctor (or person) who enables this use in the short term (the next 5 years, at least) is irresponsible.

In fact, your example of penicillin is a perfect example: who cares about any potential downsides to a drug when not using the drug has the downside of death?

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