[uspol] I just found out that the drug that almost killed my grandmother when I was 13, and got her started on the road to severe opioid addiction, is currently undergoing clinical trials so it can be reintroduced to the market.

You may remember said drug, Vioxx, from the many news stories and commercials about its thousands of class-action lawsuits due to unlisted side effects, like "uncontrollable internal bleeding" and "vastly increased risk of heart attack and stroke"

The company who manufactured it paid over 5 billion dollars in settlement fees, but still decided that it was profitable enough to give it another go. That's not surprising given that the Sackler family, who worked with Purdue to manufacture OxyContin, made over 13 billion dollars.

Because my grandmother was prescribed Vioxx for idiopathic pain (pain which ultimately turned out to be treatable with SSRIs, not painkillers), she was immediately put on Oxycodone when she was taken off the Vioxx, and then OxyContin because it was marketed as "less addictive."

There isn't a hole in the market that needs to be filled, either. We already have drugs like Celebrex that are in the same drug class and treat the same sort of pain, without causing the same kinds of side effects. And that's ignoring that Vioxx was prescribed in situations where it was not by any means the best treatment option

--that is, idiopathic pain, neuropathic pain, and menstrual pain. Conditions that are often treatable with antidepressants, birth control, and anti-inflammatory medications that specifically deal with nerve pain.

It's not especially surprising that, as the opioid epidemic becomes increasingly difficult to ignore, drug companies are desperate to introduce more non-opioid painkillers, regardless of the risks.

Let this be a reminder that any time a pharma representative claims that our high drug costs are necessary so they can create better drugs, they're full of shit. Not only because the government already subsidizes the creation of new medicines, or because an increasing number of promising medications come from outside of the USA,

but also because they're out to do whatever will make them the most money. For example, lobbying to reduce FDA regulations to the point where they can re-introduce a dangerous drug, which is cheaper than creating a better alternative.

My grandmother was so heavily addicted to opioids that when she was passing away, the highest dose of painkillers in the prescription guidelines wasn't enough to help her. She screamed until one of the nurses doubled her dose so that she could pass peacefully (risking her job to do so).

Just a reminder that for drug companies to be as profitable as they are, they can't be in the business of helping people. They're in the business of ruining the lives of people like my grandmother and in the business of destroying families like mine.

.............thank you for coming to my ted talk.