Is this what America Needs?
FDA Ponders Approval of Another Deadly Drug

Watchdog 'ARPO' challenges FDA over potential approval of a controversial new Hydrocodone formulation drug.

oxywatchdog.com

(MYRTLE BEACH, CA) - "A man's conscience, like a warning line on the highway, tells him what he shouldn't do --- but it does not keep him from doing it." Frank Howard Clark Does the FDA have a conscience, or are they going to allow the epidemic of prescription drugs to flood our country while the pharmaceutical industry reaps billions of dollars at the cost of thousands of lives?

There is an organization called ARPO which stands for Advocates for the Reform of Prescription Opioids. ARPO is a Northern American organization consisting of families suffering with the addiction of a loved one, pain patients, physicians, and advocates working toward the proper medical care for patients who suffer from chronic pain, without causing harm to them and to the general public. Their mission is “to end the epidemic of death and addiction caused by prescription opioid drugs”. The link to their website is http://www.rxreform.org

ARPO has turned their advocacy into a "watchdog" for saving lives and are challenging the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) regarding their potential approval of a controversial new Hydrocodone formulation drug. We are in the midst of a prescription drug epidemic war and are losing it in lives by the thousands. Does this country need the FDA to approve yet another narcotic stronger than Vicodin and more lethal than OxyContin? Ask ARPO -- they are stepping up to the plate and challenging the FDA to end the alliance to the pharmaceutical industry and not allow the new Hydrocodone formulation drug to further devastate the country.

ARPO reports that according to the Centers for Disease Control, we are already selling enough prescription opioids in the U.S. each year to medicate every man, woman and child in the country for one month. Now if they can have the FDA recognize this powerful statement, we may be on our way to protecting the American public and not adding to the financial gains of the pharmaceutical industry

Drug companies such as Abbott and Zogenix -- and the infamous Purdue Pharma who has us entrenched in an OxyContin epidemic because they lied about the dangers of the drug -- are racing to get the extended release Hydrocodone narcotic approved by the FDA and on the market.

ARPO has initiated a letter writing campaign to voice their objection to the consideration and potential approval of the new drug applications for pure Hydrocodone manufactured by companies like those mentioned above. Their first letter was recently mailed to Margaret Hamburg, MD, Commissioner of the FDA about the approval of another dangerous narcotic that will only fuel the bank account of the pharmaceutical company producing it. I have provided the email addresses of the heads of the FDA and ask that they be flooded with emails from citizens from every state in the country who know we do not have an undertreatment of pain in America -- rather we have a homeland security problem of drugs killing and addicting tens of thousands of people in the country every year -- under the watch of the FDA.

margaret.hamburg@fda.hhs.gov
bob.rappaport@fda.hhs.gov,
Deborah.Miller@fda.hhs.gov,
john.jenkins@fda.hhs.gov

Attached is a copy of the ARPO letter to the FDA. ARPO isn't sitting back while another dangerous drug could potentially be approved by the FDA -- and likely without a hearing. The U.S. and Canada are fighting a losing battle of opioid addiction, death and abuse. This battle is being fought by well organized and professional groups such as ARPO. Every family dealing with death and addiction should offer gratitude to ARPO for doing the job the FDA is not doing. ARPO is not influenced by the billion dollar pharmaceutical industry -- they are influenced by keeping this epidemic from becoming even more dangerous by this latest Hudrocodone opioid unleashed in the U.S.

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Salem-News.com Reporter Marianne Skolek, is an Activist for Victims of OxyContin and Purdue Pharma throughout the United States and Canada. In July 2007, she testified against Purdue Pharma in Federal Court in Virginia at the sentencing of their three CEO's - Michael Friedman, Howard Udell and Paul Goldenheim - who pleaded guilty to charges of marketing OxyContin as less likely to be addictive or abused to physicians and patients. She also testified against Purdue Pharma at a Judiciary Hearing of the U.S. Senate in July 2007. Marianne works with government agencies and private attorneys in having a voice for her daughter Jill, who died in 2002 after being prescribed OxyContin, as well as the voice for scores of victims of OxyContin. She has been involved in her work for the past 8-1/2 years and is currently working on a book that exposes Purdue Pharma for their continued criminal marketing of OxyContin.

Marianne is a nurse having graduated in 1991 as president of her graduating class. She also has a Paralegal certification. Marianne served on a Community Service Board for the Courier News, a Gannet newspaper in NJ writing articles predominantly regarding AIDS patients and their emotional issues. She was awarded a Community Service Award in 1993 by the Hunterdon County, NJ HIV/AIDS Task Force in recognition of and appreciation for the donated time, energy and love in facilitating a Support Group for persons with HIV/AIDS.

Marianne Skolek
National Activist for Victims of OxyContin and
Purdue Pharma - a criminally convicted pharmaceutical company
Staff Writer, Salem-News.com

www.purduepharma.com/pressroom/app/news_announc/USGovt_reponse_Main.pdf

judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=2905&wit_id=6612

hi.bnet.com/blogs/sebelius-response.pdf

www.vawd.uscourts.gov/PurdueFrederickCo/default.asp

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Grateful parent February 27, 2012 7:46 am (Pacific time)

Marianne, this is so serious, you are one of the few who shows up with these articles, I know you are making a tremendous difference the efforts must never end until the fda is forced to stand up and take control away from big pharma, again thank you for telling it like it is.

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Ada February 27, 2012 7:34 am (Pacific time)

Another excellent article. Thank you for your relentless search for the truth... a lie cannot live. Marianne you are a true ambassador.

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dpc February 27, 2012 4:58 am (Pacific time)

Not exactly an objective opinion. Just to make this clear to readers, this is not news. This is the opposite of news. This is a smear campaign

Editor: Another big pharma rep writhing from a dose of truth, of course Marianne Skolek is right on the mark as always, her statements are correct, this is nothing but a money project for big pharma, they don't care about the people who become addicted, the last thing needed is another....

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