UPDATE - The lollypop story gets big
Actiq has hit the big-time.
Newsweek's latest edition will feature an article on the off-label prescribing of the highly potent narcotic lollypop, an article noting that as much as 80% of scripts for Actiq are for off-label use.
Sources indicate this was brought to the reporter's attention by an unusual source - the risk management department of The Washington Post, Newsweek's sister publication, noticed a high incidence of Actiq scripts among its workers comp patients, and started digging into the issue.
Cephalon, Actiq's manufacturer, strongly denies it promotes the drug for off-label usage, but internal sources at the company appear to reject those claims.
This has gotten the attention of Connecticut's Attorney General as well as Rep. Henry Waxman, chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
At the request of several consulting clients, I have been in contact with Cephalon to address the specific issue of off-label prescribing in workers compensation. Cephalon's response was received last month, and is being shared with several larger WC PBMs and payers.
UPDATE
From a contact in the WC PBM industry comes this tidbit - overheard at the American Pain Society conference in DC this week - a Cephalon rep said "without off-label prescribing, we'd be out of business..."
Comments
In a recent Pain Management conference, a Cephalon rep was overheard to say: "every one of our products has significant use off-label. In fact, if it weren't for off-label use, we'd be out of business."
Posted by: Ralph | May 4, 2007 8:42 AM
What is even more shocking is the 87.6% increase in the manufacturer AWP of this product within a 12-month period (Jan-Dec 2006). This medication should be used as a last resort when other short-acting opioid analgesics do not provide adequate (acute) pain relief.
Posted by: Robyn | May 22, 2007 11:58 AM
I suffer from an EXTREMELY RARE gynecological disease that effect less than 1% of the women in the entire world. It is so rare that only OB/GYNS or anesthesiologists who specialize in this area of pain management are familiar with it. It has NO CURE. We searched the world over and consulted the BEST of doctors. The pain is SO EXCRUCIATING. My worse pain attacks feel like I am in the potocin induced transition part of active labor without an epidural. Without Actiq, I would be dead already. Other meds do not compare. My doctor told me years ago, people who suffered my degree of pain committed suicide. Actiq gives me at least a partial life to live (the worst attacks still leave me almost immobile, but able to LIVE THROUGH IT AND SURVIVE.) I thank G-D EVERY DAY that He enabled Actiq to come about so my husband still has a wife and my five young children a mother. SHAME on those people who are so judgmental. If they would have but ONE second of my pain, they would COME RUNNING to get a prescription filled. Oh and one more thing. I NEVER got a "high" because I ONLY use it for when I REALLY need to do so.
Posted by: Rebecca Weinreb | August 20, 2007 10:28 AM
Maybe someone from the medical field can explain--in layman's terms--the difference between chronic pain caused by terminal cancer, and chronic pain caused by other sources such as migraines, back pain, endometriosis, degenerative disks, etc?
An awful lot of holier-than-thou lawyers and medical folks out there who seem to know what's best for everyone--yet they're not suffering, and their patients suffer twice. First with the pain of their affliction, and then with the pain of knowing their doctor dismisses their pain.
Posted by: Bill Dodge | July 24, 2008 1:19 AM