Pharma Veterans

World Drug Report 2023 – Part 2 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #886 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #886 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans  aims to share knowledge and wisdom from Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Baqir Zaidi Credit: Sinitta Leunen Credit: Towfique Barbhuiya UNODC - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has published World Drug Report 2023 (link at the end) which shows where the world is vis-à-vis drugs and crime. I am reproducing here the highlights of the report in summarized way. Key Message #4 – Large inequalities remain in the availability of pharmaceutical opioids for medical consumption, and treatment of drug abuse. The issues with opioid abuse besides, inequality exists even in the availability of these pharmaceutical products between high-in...

World Drug Report 2023 – Part 1 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #885 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #885 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans  aims to share knowledge and wisdom from Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Alesia Kozik Credit: MART Production Credit: Zarina Khalilova We are now talking about DRUGS, the illicit compounds of various types and abused medicines.  This is the latest information from UNODC - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. They have published World Drug Report 2023 (link at the end) which shows where the world is vis-à-vis drugs and crime; illicit drugs or abused medicines are a crime by itself and leads to more crimes. This report such important information that it should be shared in detail and shared publicly to raise awareness. I sh...

Opioid Crisis and Pharma Industry – Last Part – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #726 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #726 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. This series of blogposts is based on multiple sources, links to some of which appear at the end. The entire discussion on factors associated with opioid misuse rests on four factors: individual, interpersonal, community, and society. The individual is affected by outside factors and influences the outside factors. For example, an individual is exposed to trauma of any kind, uses opioid substances to get relief, becomes addicted, the family and friends are adversely affected at interpersonal level, the community loses a productive worker who would otherwise ...

Opioid Crisis and Pharma Industry – Part 5 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #725 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #725 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Photo Credit: Mart Production Photo Credit: Google Images This series of blogposts is based on multiple sources, links to some of which appear at the end. We now look at the factors other than those associated with the pharma companies working. Individual physicians’ approach to the concept of pain relief determines the prescribing habits. While some physicians advise patients to learn to bear a certain degree of pain, the others believe that pain relief must be provided by all means and that the patient must not suffer unnecessarily. In the US, chronic pain w...

Opioid Crisis and Pharma Industry – Part 4 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #724 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #724 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Photo Credit: Google Images Photo Credit: Tawfiqu Barbhuiya This series of blogposts is based on multiple sources, links to some of which appear at the end. Three pharmaceutical companies and their involvement has been discussed in detail already. However, such instances are complex matters. Lot of work was done to understand commercial, social, ecological, legal, and policy matters which contributed to the spread of this epidemic. We shall briefly look at these points to strengthen our understanding. Our situation in Pakistan is not much different. We do not ...

Opioid Crisis and Pharma Industry – Part 3 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #723 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #722 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. This series of blogposts is based on multiple sources, links to some of which appear at the end. Johnson & Johnson is the third company which is implicated in the opioid crisis directly. Their story is by far the most damning in the entire cycle of crisis. In 1980s, J&J needed a reliable supply of opium for a popular product, Tylenol with Codeine. Having the reach of a multinational, they found and acquired a business in Tasmania, Australia, which grew and processed poppies. They grew the business further, and even developed a new strain of poppy calle...

Opioid Crisis and Pharma Industry – Part 2 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #722 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #722 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Photo Credit: Google Images Photo Credit: Google Images This series of blogposts is based on multiple sources, links to some of which appear at the end. Mallinckrodt plc is an American-Irish company which manufactured semi-synthetic opioid drugs like hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and oxycodone. Between 2006 and 2014, Mallinckrodt accounted for 27% of opioid market compared to 18% of Purdue Pharma. The investigations show that Mallinckrodt, the largest manufacturer of opioids in the US had been able to cultivate hundreds of loyal prescribers, thanks to its aggres...

Opioid Crisis and Pharma Industry – Part 1 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #721 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #721 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Photo Credit: Google Images Photo Credit: Google Images Photo Credit: Google Images This series of blogposts is based on multiple sources, links of some of which appear at the end. The Opioid Crisis emerged out of the opioid epidemic which started getting noticed in the US in the early 2010s. The magnitude of problem was so big that the US Department and of Health and Human Sciences – DHSS soon declared it to be a Public Health Emergency, and the entire machinery got active. Since then, there have been numerous lawsuits against the main companies; most have be...