美国国家公共电台 NPR Majority Of Americans Say Drug Companies Should Be Held Responsible For Opioid Crisis

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A new poll by NPR and Ipsos finds a third of Americans have been touched directly by the deadly opioid epidemic¹ that's still killing² more than a hundred people every day. The survey released this morning found a clear majority of Americans want drug companies held accountable for their role marketing³ highly addictive⁴ opioid painkillers⁵. North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann has more.

BRIAN MANN, BYLINE⁶: The new survey by NPR and Ipsos confirms a lot of Americans are feeling the pain of this addiction⁷ crisis that's destroyed families and swamped social service and addiction treatment programs. Mallory Newall was lead researcher on the poll.

MALLORY NEWALL: One in 3 have been personally affected⁸ in some way, either by knowing someone who has overdosed or knowing somebody with an opioid addiction.

MANN: Newall says the survey found huge support - roughly 60% - for making drug companies pay to help clean up the mess. Unlike many issues in America these days, this is something all kinds of Americans agree on.

NEWALL: That's something that - no matter your age, your gender⁹, where you live, your partisan¹⁰ affiliation¹¹ - that people believe in large numbers.

MANN: Support is even higher - more than 70% - for making drug companies pay the cost of addiction treatment services and for the distribution of the drug naloxone, used to revive people who've overdosed. These results reflect a perilous¹² moment for drug makers¹³ and distributors like Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and McKesson. They're some of the biggest companies in the U.S., and they were once ranked among the most trusted. But speaking in Atlanta at an addiction conference yesterday, President Trump¹⁴ treated Big Pharma like pariahs¹⁵.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Because we are holding Big Pharma accountable. They should be accountable.

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MANN: President Trump shared the stage with Tom Murphy, a state narcotics¹⁶ investigator¹⁷ from Virginia whose son died in 2017. He started using prescription¹⁸ painkillers after injuring his hand.

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TOM MURPHY: Twelve days before Christmas, he passed away of a heroin¹⁹ and fentanyl overdose. His name was Matthew Jason Murphy.

MANN: The NPR/Ipsos survey found Americans directly affected in this way by the epidemic are even more eager to see drug companies held accountable. Big Pharma has already been flooded with more than 1,600 civil lawsuits²⁰ stemming from the opioid crisis. This week, the Justice Department arrested executives who worked for a major drug distributor called Rochester Drug Cooperative, one of the companies that ships opioids from manufacturers to local pharmacies²¹.

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JEFF BERMAN: It is the first time executives of a pharmaceutical²² distributor and the distributor itself have been charged with drug trafficking.

MANN: Jeff Berman is U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He says the company has admitted wrongdoing and agreed to pay a $20 million fine. Executives allegedly funneled²³ prescription opioid pills to pharmacies that then sold them on the black market. At a press conference Tuesday, Berman made it clear this case reflects a shift by federal prosecutors²⁴.

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BERMAN: This epidemic has been driven by greed. Our office will do everything in its power to bring to justice anyone responsible for unlawfully fueling this opioid epidemic, and that includes executives who illegally distribute drugs from their boardrooms.

MANN: Company executives with a firm called Insys are already facing federal criminal charges in Boston relating to their marketing of prescription opioids. Jurors are deliberating in that case. Drug companies contacted by NPR in recent weeks maintained they acted responsibly - marketing opioids appropriately and helping²⁵ respond to the addiction crisis. But the Ipsos/NPR survey found a majority of Americans aren't buying it. Seventy percent said even after companies pay fines and penalties, they should be forced to come clean, publicly disclosing details of the role they played fueling the epidemic.

Brian Mann, NPR News.