McCaskill urges bill for opioid makers' disclosures

Money talks in Washington, but Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill believes advocacy groups pushing to defend opioid manufacturers barely whisper about the source of their funding.

On Tuesday, the Democratic lawmaker spoke about a just released report that showed pharmaceutical companies paying nearly $9 million over six years to third-party organizations for their support in helping shape public policy regarding pain-management drugs.

McCaskill said she would introduce legislation in the next few months to require disclosure of the financial relationships between drug companies and those groups advocating for policies that would enhance the firms’ bottom lines.

“The report is basically an attempt to look at something that is hidden from public view,” the senator said in a conference call with Missouri reporters.

“If all of their money, or a lot of their money, is coming from the opioid manufacturers, that is, at a minimum, something that should be disclosed to the public.”

The organizations mentioned in the report have names like the U.S. Pain Foundation, the Academy of Integrative Pain Management and the American Academy of Pain Management.

Such organizations do not serve exclusively the wishes of benefactors. But some, according to McCaskill and the report, have lobbied for policies that have an impact on the opioid epidemic, which killed more than 42,000 Americans through overdoses in 2016.

For example, some of the groups fought an attempt by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to introduce new guidelines for limiting prescription amounts for opioid medications.

An earlier study by the Georgetown University Medical Center said the “voices of independent groups that truly represent patients and consumers are drowned out by the thousands of groups that take money from industry and push industry viewpoints.”

McCaskill’s legislation would focus on public disclosure of the funding of the organizations.

“I think anybody has the right to give money to anything,” she said, “but there are areas where the public has the right to know, and this would certainly be one of them.”

The report’s information, gathered at McCaskill’s behest from five of the top opioid manufacturers, showed that the U.S. Pain Foundation got $2.9 million from the companies between 2012 and 2017, with the Academy of Integrative Pain Management and the American Academy of Pain Medicine getting more than $1 million each.

Purdue Pharma proved the largest contributor at $4.15 million, with Insys Therapeutics adding $3.14 million. Fourteen organizations, including advocacy groups and professional societies, got listed in the breakdown of funding.

Purdue, a privately held Connecticut manufacturer of the painkiller OxyContin, made news on Friday when it announced it would no longer promote opioids to those who prescribe medications.

McCaskill was asked if the congressional investigation might have prompted the decision.

“I hope so,” she said. “I sure hope that our emphasis on this is making a difference.”

McCaskill serves as the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee. Tuesday’s document was listed as a “Minority Staff Report,” meaning it did not have the endorsement of the full committee.