A pair of investor coalitions is successfully using shareholder proposals to pressure drug makers and wholesalers to change their pricing and oversight of opioid distribution, respectively. And the outcomes reflect the extent to which concerns over these issues are resonating with stockholders.
Example one: On Friday, 28 percent of Biogen (BIIB) shareholders voted in favor of a proposal that requires the drug maker to compile reports about the risks created by high prices and examine how pricing strategies propel executive compensation.
About the Author Reprints
APRIL 2017
I have had MS since I was 14. Was determined legally disabled at 21 by the SSA. After years of OTC pain relievers the pain just got worse until i couldnt stand the pain in my feet, lower back radiating up neck. Then went to pain clinic. The dr. ended up getting me up to 4 Hydrocode 10mgs a day after 2 years of progressing in dose. I always pass drug screens and have the correct amount in my bottle. Soon after that, once control and regulations got worse that dr. left the location and I started seeing another dr. While seeing him for a little while he increased my dose to 5 10mg a day. Ive seen 3 different drs since I started going there about 3 or 4 years ago. After i been taking 5 10s a day for few months, which had me as close to “normal” as I had been since I was 16 and I was as happy as I could be in this “crappy” body. My pain level was as low as it had been in years. I was even going to the gym for physical therapy. Well, that dr. left the practice and I started seeing another dr. Due to the new regulations and the “need” to cover their butts he dropped the dose to 3 7.5s a day, 2 morphines a day and Gabopentin which i like the idea of but makes me extremely tired. After researching I now see why dosage was lowered. An attempt for the DEA & CDC to lower abuse which I understand but i’m not a “pill head” and I don’t abuse my medications. I have never been addicted to anything. I’ve never been hooked on drugs nor alcohol. I dont like the idea of being controlled like that. Now, because of the pain management clinic I am physically, and im sure, mentally addicted to the relief and therefore the happiness that Hydrocodone gave me. Just being lowered from 5-10 mgs to 3- 7.5 mgs a day has put me in my wheel chair pretty much all of the time and drastically lowered quality of life for me. I use a shower bench bc cant stay standing but wouldnt be able to get out of a bath. Pain in the bottoms of my feet, lower center part of my back, and back of my neck were my initial reason for going, but now w/o the meds that worked my entire body hurts.. Of course, now I wish that I wouldn’t have ever given in to the pain and been prescribed pain medicine, but I was miserable & OTC stuff just didnt work anymore. Recently, I can’t play with my son like I did when taking the 5 per day, my brother has to take him to school, I can’t go to the gym
(which I had just started Jan. 2017 & was making me feel great.), and the biggest thing is that my wife and I were trying to give my 5 year old son a little brother or sister, but w/o the hhydrocodone I can’t fathom how id be able to take care of another child/baby. Because of all of the “druggies” out there I am being punished and will eventually lose everything. I had started taking the neuropathy med called Gabopentin. only at night and it did lower the pain in my feet. It was rough the next morning though and I was feeling weird all day. Despite that, I figured I just had to get use to it so stayed on it. Nothing changed. I continued to feel weird throughout the day. I tried taking it at night, then, after I took my son to school in the AM, i tried taking one and taking a nap. I slept from 8am until 2:55pm. I am supposed to pick my son up at 2:45. Needless to say I was late for the first time ever.
I have a 5 year old so cant afford to be extremely tired considering that I already deal with fatigue from the MS. The morphine is just something else to get addicted to, which i refuse to do. Plus it makes me high, which I dont like. The 5 Hydrcodone 10mgs worked. I even was going to the gym with my wife for a little physical therapy. We were each others motivation. Please help me get my life back.
*UPDATE* May 2018
I now have a beautiful baby girl born in January 2018. My Dr. has increased my dose to 4 10mg/day and 2/day extended release 10mg Oxycottins after about a year of being prescibed different pain meds (still opiods). Pain management should have just kept me on the 5 per day hydrocodones instead of basically traumatizing my diseased body with multiple different opioids and different doses over the past year and causing the MS symotoms to rapidly progress. Just to end up being currently still addicted to the Hydrocode plus now addicted to Oxycottin. My life and my body was pretty good(for what it could be) before all of the experimenting with different opioids, and just to memtion, the pain was already being managed well.
I also hate feeling like im being treated like I have done something wrong every month when I go to the pain clinic. I abide by their rules and contract. I always have the correct meds when I go and I always pass the drug tests. After 3 years of going there I would figure they would let up a little but most recent visit I was having trouble urinating for the drug test(urinary problem from MS). It took me hour and a half to pee enough for the test. The way I was being treated because of this problem was unbelievable to me. If I couldnt hurry up and produce urine then I was going to be discharged. I wasnt refusing to pee. My body wasnt allowing me to, but I was being treated like a criminal. I was willing to just wait until I had to pee to give them their sample, but they werent willing to wait for it. I didnt understand that. They had to be there until 5:00 anyway and it was only 2:00 so whats the big deal if have to wait on my sample. They are so quick to discharge a completely compliant patient because of a legitimate medical problem which is the reason I am seeking treatment from a dr to begin with. This scares the hell out of me and I have to worry about this every month for the rest of my life. Stress is a one of many key cocontributors to the progression of Multiple Sclerosis progression. As if life isnt already stressful enough. Ive learned how to disregard stressful things to the best of my ability over the past 17 years of having this disease, but this pain med bs just keeps adding another stressful event every month. Im scared of the MS progression over the next year due to the stress each month of the pain clinic visits and potential to be discharged through no voluntary fault of my own. I just want the visits to just go the way they are supposed to without the change in meds, the threats of being discharged bc of a medical problem, and the being talked to and treated like a criminal. I dont want to feel as though I am visiting a probation officer everytime I go to the pain clinic. Something has to be done to help the legitimate patients who are in pain and are only seeking a better quality of life, but I fear that its just going to get worse until there are no legitimate chronic pain patients left due to death(voluntary or not) and therefore no need for pain meds to even exist anymore.THIS IS ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS BC ILLEGAL PAIN PILL ABUSERS ARE GOING TO CONTINUE TO EXIST AND BUY THEM FROM THE STREETS AND OVERDOSE ON THEM FROM MIXING THEM WITH OTHER SUBSTANCES WHILE LEGITIMATE PATIENTS IN CHRONIC PAIN ARE GOING TO CEASE TO EXIST. HOW IS THIS CONSTITUTIONAL? THE LAND OF THE FREE AS LONG AS YOU DONT HAVE CHRONIC PAIN. BECAUSE IF YOU DO THEN YOUR MEDS WILL BE REDUCED SO YOU CANT BE FREE AND YOU WILL BE TRAPPED BY THE PAIN. A PLEASE SOMEONE HELP US!!!
Well said Wes. I have been trying daily to get a lawyer to take the case for a class action lawsuit and bring this bullshit to an end, but no one has so far. I refuse to give up, I have no choice… it’s either do something about it, or die.
This who drug thing is DISCRIMINATORY! YOU LEFT OUT REAL PEOPLE WITH PAINFUL DISEASES! PLUS PRICES ARE ALL GREED.THEN YOU COMBINE CHRONIC PAIN WITH HERION ADDICTS. WHOM EVER PUT ALL THIS IN TO LAW ,PUT NO THOUGHT WHAT SO EVER INTO THIS. YALK HAVE DEGREES,YOU FOOLED ME. I have crippling DEGENERATIVE DISC DISEASE from a fall at age 24. Fell 20 ft. I’ve have had 2 separate drunks hit my cars a yr apart,total both cars and crush me,I lived. Yet you want me to suffer. Maybe some of you will need help,you better not get it. People are dying because of intolerable PAIN. Some of the less educated are commuting suicide. If I die due to suffering you can explain it to my 2 GRANDCHILDREN. RN 30 yrs. PAIN the 5th vital sign
15 yrs ago,if a doctor didn’t treat your pain they would be fined so all of this is on you ! Come on make some changes
So true. Thanks for speaking up. I agree. I will literally die a slow agonizing death without my meds next month, so I haven’t got much time, I am trying to get a lawyer if you know of any class action lawyers let me know.