call to action
The systematic shielding of the Sackler family from accountability is one of the greatest cover-ups ever orchestrated. We seek to give hope to the hopeless: the opioid survivors and their family members who have lost faith in justice due to the DOJ's latest settlement with the Sackler family. We are committed to avoiding future epidemics--and in order to achieve it, we recognize the need to educate leaders, organizations, and the powerful about the consequences of acting as "curtains" for these actors.
The Spoon Movement unveils this curtain to call attention to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) role in the opioid crisis and our opposition to the nomination of Janet Woodcock for Commissioner of FDA.
We are here at the Headquarters of Purdue Pharma to also shine a spotlight on the questionable relationship between the FDA division that Dr. Woodcock led for the past 26 years and this criminally convicted company.
We oppose Dr. Woodcock’s nomination because she presided over the worst regulatory agency failure in U.S. history. More than 500,000 Americans have died from opioid overdoses and millions have become addicted in large part because FDA failed to properly regulate opioid manufacturers.
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On January 27, 2021 the Spoon Movement co-signed a letter along with 27 other activist groups opposing Dr. Woodcock’s potential nomination.
“In 2017, the President’s Commission on Combatting Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis found that the opioid crisis was caused in part by “inadequate oversight by the FDA.”
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On February 03, 2021 an OPED in USA Today titled “FDA’s Janet Woodcock failed to stop the opioid epidemic” was published and started with this-
“Drug manufacturers such as Purdue might have ignited the deadly opioid crisis. However, the FDA was instrumental in allowing the epidemic to play out.”
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August 2020 the AMA Journal of Ethic published- How FDA Failures Contributed to the Opioid Crisis
“As a federal judge presiding over hundreds of county and state cases against opioid manufacturers and distributors recently found: “It is accurate to describe the opioid epidemic as a man-made plague, 20 years in the making”
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February 24, 2019 60 Minutes CBS NEWS: DID THE FDA IGNITE THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC?
“A drug manufacturer denounces his own industry and explains to 60 minutes how a label change expanded the use of opioids.”
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January 06, 2020 Promarket published: Purdue Circumvented the Regulator to Promote OxyContin, Hiding Its Real Risk of Addiction
“Dr. Wright served as the FDA’s medical reviewer for OxyContin prior to being hired by Purdue. His transition from FDA approval-reviewer to Purdue executive raises important questions about industry influence and the problems of the “revolving door” between government agencies and the industries they are supposed to regulate.”
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August 19, 2020 Posner.com: 2006 Department of Justice memo that recommended CRIMINAL charges against PURDUE PHARMA
“The six-page October 6, 2006 Department of Justice memorandum that recommended that top Purdue executives be charged with an array of felony charges - conspiracy, money laundering and wire and mail fraud - is at last public. Two U.S. Senators have requested since 2019 that the DOJ make the document public.”
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“Woodcock’s critics say she was overly sympathetic to third-party groups funded by the pharmaceutical industry that helped redesign analgesic clinical trials in a way that boosted their chances of success.”
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October 07, 2013 MEDPAGE: FDA and PHARMA – Emails Raise Pay-for-Play Concerns
“the emails raise concerns about a possible pay-for-play arrangement in which drug companies were able to buy access to invitation-only meetings where they could meet with FDA officials and possibly influence FDA policy regarding approval and regulation of analgesics.”
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June 28, 2017 Springer.com: “Unsettling circularity”: Clinical trial enrichment and the evidentiary politics of chronic pain
"Allegations have been raised that a new, scientifically questionable methodology for drug approval was created at these pay-to-play meetings. If true, we have an alarming explanation for the indefensible decision of the FDA to approve Zohydro despite the FDA’s own Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee voting 11-2 against approval.”
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February 23 ,2021 NYTimes: One activist is asking the Biden administration to remember the failures that led to the opioid epidemic as it chooses the next head of the F.D.A.
“A recently discovered 2006 Department of Justice memorandum described the approval process for OxyContin as having been “tainted” by Purdue’s efforts to position the drug as less addictive and prone to abuse than other opioids.”