Drug company causing problems for taxpayers

Attorneys general from nearly every state and across the political spectrum agree that the makers of the drug Suboxone, a widely used treatment that reduces cravings for opiate addicts, violated state and federal antitrust laws.

In the process, they have unnecessarily inflated the price of Suboxone and undermined security in prisons all over the country. Most critically, at a time when the nationwide opioid crisis has reached epidemic proportions, they have made it more difficult for patients to access a range of effective treatments.

Forty-two states have joined in a lawsuit against Indivior and MonoSolRX, alleging that the companies manipulated patent laws and U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations in an attempt to prevent competition from entering the marketplace — a strategy that has been very successful for them.

The lawsuit, Wisconsin vs. Indivior Inc. et al., accuses the drug companies of “product hopping,” or making non-medical changes to an approved medical product in order to stifle competition. In this case, Indivior received FDA approval in 2002 for an opioid dependency treatment (buprenorphine/naloxone) that came in tablet form and for which they were granted market exclusivclothes ity for seven years.

During that time, Indivior stopped producing the tablets (based on disputed safety concerns not evaluated by the FDA) and began producing a dissolvable oral strip instead. The FDA approved the patented strip version of Suboxone in 2010, leaving potential generic competitors unable to actually compete: The strip is not an exact pharmaceutical equivalent of the tablets, so there is currently no drug on the market for generic brands to duplicate.

Naturally, this has led to inflated prices for Suboxone. And in Wisconsin and elsewhere, the strips are one of, if not the only, treatment of this type covered under Medicaid. Alleging that Indivior’s safety concerns were baseless and that its refusal to continue producing Suboxone in tablet form violated antitrust laws, the various attorneys general intervened to get cheaper and more accessible versions of buprenorphine, in tablet form, to market.

Bringing a greater variety of options for this treatment to patients is important not only because it would help combat the growing opioid epidemic in a number of states, but because Suboxone strips are easy to conceal — a feature that has spawned an extensive black market in prisons.

In Wisconsin and other states, law enforcement officers have uncovered contraband in the form of Suboxone strips being slipped in — via books, and other items — and abused in prison. In Maryland, Suboxone was the leading contraband item found in correctional facilities: It has been called “the king of the jailhouse drug trade.” Diversifying the market with options that are less likely to be diverted to a black market is key to reducing this problem.

Last July, President Barack Obama signed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 into law, signaling a bipartisan, nationwide recognition that our approach to addiction needs to change. The law contains a number of initiatives designed to expand treatment options and availability, but does not address potentially anticompetitive actions by drug companies.

The opioid epidemic is hurting those who struggle directly with the pain of addiction, and it is unnecessarily hurting taxpayers due to the woeful lack of options and associated costs. It is time to take a second look at reforming the opioid market, starting with the regulatory environment that paved the way for companies to effectively block competition.

Lessons from Stockholm

I had the privilege of attending the Nobel Prize ceremonies and lectures in Stockholm this year. Bob Dylan’s thank you speech read by the American ambassador and the performance of his “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” by Patti Smith captured headlines.

Hiding in the event was the real message for America and Wisconsin. Of the 11 who received Nobel Prizes on Dec. 10, only one (Dylan) was born in the United States. But seven out of the 10 foreign-born laureates work today at U.S. universities. This is a great tribute to the strength of American science to attract and benefit from talent. These immigrants contribute much to America’s world leadership in science.

For those who are trying to make America great again: Don’t lose sight of how great we are right now and how we got here.

Attacking tenure and individual professors, continual funding cuts, legislative review of professor’s syllabi, allowing students and professors to carry guns to class are all tearing down the University of Wisconsin-Madison and will make it harder if not impossible to attract top-level scientific talent to our state.

Thomas A. Heberlein emeritus professor University of Wisconsin-Madison

Climate change truth

In Miles Dake’s assertion that climate change is a religion, he plays the subliminal game of President-elect Donald Trump: “It’s true because I say it’s true!” (“Climate change as religion,” Letters, Jan. 3).

I speak as a retired former Air Force meteorologist, who, in the twilight years if my career, attended seminars at the American Meteorological Society (in the 1970s!) where research scientists spoke of man-made global warming, and spoke then about what we are experiencing now.

While some have suggested that Pope Francis should stay with theology, he is, in fact, also a scientist. Mixing theology with science is appropriate where a moral imperative exists.

Trump’s China policy

Philip Blank

I read Pete Hoekstra’s commentary with interest (“Trump right on China,” Dec. 28).

He outlined how China has taken advantage of “the tired political wisdom” of America’s policies in the areas of trade, economic espionage, Chinese regional expansion, North Korea, etc. Hard not to argue that China has become more bold in recent years.

Hoekstra pointed out that the phone call between president-elect Donald Trump and Taiwan’s president sent a strong signal that major foreign policy changes were on the way. Hard not to argue that, either.

What I will be interested in seeing is whether the phone call was the first of well-thought-out diplomatic moves reflective of cohesive policy positions, or simply a happy accident. Time will tell.

Diann Lebow

Allow locals to govern

Gov. Scott Walker is requesting that President-elect Donald Trump clear barriers to several regulations such as drug testing for public benefits recipients and keeping Syrian refugees out of the state (“Walker asks Trump to ease federal rules in Wisconsin,” Dec. 21).

Walker stated, “Too often, states have become mere administrative provinces of an all-powerful federal government in Washington.” In Wisconsin, the phrase is: “Too often, cities and towns have become mere administrative provinces of an allpowerful state government in Madison.”

As Walker states for the federal government, “Now is the time to reverse that trend,” now is the time to reverse the trend of the state Legislature dictating to cities and towns in Wisconsin.

Judy Pier Lybeck