Craig Landau has been named president and CEO for Purdue Pharma L.P.”™s U.S. operations. He served as president and CEO of
Purdue Pharma (Canada) since 2013 and will retain the leadership responsibility for that company. Landau replaces Mark Timney, whom the Stamford-based company said was “leaving Purdue to pursue other career opportunities.”
The moves come at a challenging time for Purdue, which is facing a growing number of lawsuits over its alleged complicity in contributing to the opioid crisis nationwide; in particular, its marketing of the drug OxyContin has come under fire. On Wednesday, Missouri became the third state to file such a lawsuit, accusing Purdue, Johnson & Johnson and units of Endo International Plc of fraudulently misrepresenting the risks of opioid painkillers.
Landau joined Purdue Pharma in 1999 and rose through the ranks, serving as chief medical officer and vice president of research and development innovation, clinical and medical affairs. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physiology and anatomy from Cornell University and his M.D. from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, completing his anesthesiology residency at Yale University. He is also a U.S. Army veteran, retiring after 14 years in 2005 with the rank of major.
Against the background of misinformation and misused statistics, hysterically creating an out-pouring of false narratives concerning drug companies like Purdue (whose pain medications have given millions of Americans with chronic pain a new lease on life, with a quality of life they only dreamed about before finding these medications) and involving doctors as well — there is an inconvenient fact that no one in government wants to hear: almost the entirety of the public narrative that shapes federal and state opioid policy is wrong.
Using data published by the CDC United States Centers for Disease Control itself, we see that there is NO relationship between state-by-state rates of opioid prescribing by doctors and overdose-related deaths from all sources of opioids, including legal or diverted prescriptions and illegal street drugs.
In other words, there’s no cause and effect between prescribing rates and overdose deaths — and historical charting of the data reveal that hasn’t been the case in 20 years.
Inconvenient facts (below) — never presented by the media or by politicians, who prefer instead to present false narratives and false framing of half-true statistics… Why don’t we hear politicians and news presenters on TV talking about a “Tobacco Crisis”… Or an “Alcohol Crisis”? Simply follow the facts:
• Center for Disease Control & Prevention:
Smoking is linked to, depending on the estimate, 480,000 to 540,000 deaths each year — the leading preventable cause of death in America. More than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking.
• United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC):
more than 88,000 people die from alcohol-related deaths each year in the United States. And alcohol continues to be one of the nation’s most preventable causes of death, second only to tobacco and a poor diet/sedentary lifestyle.
• National Institute on Drug Abuse
https://www.drugabuse.gov
Drug overdose deaths involving prescription opioids rose from 3,442 in 1999 to 17,029 in 2017. Since 2016, however, the number of deaths have remained stable.
These are the real facts: 500,000 deaths from smoking… And 88,000 deaths from drinking. 17,000 from prescribed pain medication.
While politicians and TV news people state “70,000 deaths from drug overdoses.” Again, the false narrative — 70,000 from 100 different drugs. A tiny fraction from prescribed pain medications — AND involving teens and people in their early 20s. Almost none from the core pain medication audience — folks 50 plus. Responsible adults with serious conditions who NEED these medications.
And now, thanks to this foolish and destructive trend, criminalizing legitimate people with legitimate medical needs — Americans are having a terrible time getting pain medication from doctors, and so tens of millions of Americans suffer… while the false hysteria continues.
We’re going to have to push back on this — hard. And change this back to where it was, on a reasonable level for patients, and doctors, and drug companies. All suffering the brunt of this insane prohibition leveled at the wrong people.