FDA Approves Addictive Painkiller Oxycontin For Children

oxycodone

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the highly addictive and dangerous drug Oxycontin for children as young as 11 despite the fact that overdoses involving prescription painkillers now represent a national epidemic, with 17,000 Americans dying every year.

The approval was given by the FDA after a study by Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Connecticut, the same company that manufactures the drug, “supported a new pediatric indication for OxyContin in patients 11 to 16 years old,” according to the federal agency.

The fact that the drug was approved for children on the basis of a study by the same company that stands to financially profit from the decision represents a flagrant conflict of interest. In 2013, Purdue Pharma had to pay $4 million to settle with a county in Kentucky for “damages the community suffered after the company marketed OxyContin as a safer alternative to other pain medicine,” leading to the drug being dubbed “hillbilly heroin.”

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