NASHUA, N.H. — Over the weekend, Opioid Lobbyist Cinde Warmington offered zero answers and plenty of excuses when pressed about her claim that no one knew the dangers of OxyContin, directly contradicting testimony from state officials at the time.
Warmington’s continued excuses and inaccurate portrayals of her decades of lobbying on behalf of the opioid industry have produced more questions than answers for voters across New Hampshire.
Transcript:
Adam Sexton: You keep coming back to this idea that this awareness was not out there of the dangers of OxyContin. The Governor herself has raised this question in response. When you testified before the legislature in 2002 on behalf of Purdue Pharma, the HHS Commissioner at the time, Don Shumway, someone representing State Police, they both got up and said OxyContin is a growing problem. They raised the very concerns that you’re saying you only learned about much later. Were you not in the room when they said those things?
Cinde Warmington: No, well, those actually weren’t the concerns, and the lie and the fraud that was perpetuated by Purdue Pharma was so massive and extensive. It did not alert the FDA. They were lied to. The Attorney General’s Office, the doctors, the nurses, the pharmacies. This is a fraud that was perpetuated across the entire industry.
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Adam Sexton: Commissioner Shumway in that hearing said, quote, Purdue Pharma has manufactured a drug which is highly addictive and it’s in a form that makes it abusable. You didn’t hear him say that.
Cinde Warmington: Oh, I’m not saying that at all, and I think Don Shumway, I have the highest regard for Don Shumway. What I will tell you is that that statement did not alert either the FDA, the professional associations, the Attorney General’s Office or anyone else to the extent of the fraud. I cannot possibly take you back in time. There are entire books written on this that you could read. That would explain more to you why that statement in itself was part of Purdue Pharma’s lie.
“Minutes after Opioid Lobbyist Cinde Warmington testified that OxyContin was a miracle drug with very few side effects, state officials were ringing the alarm bells about the dangers of the drug,” said Ayotte campaign spokesman John Corbett. “Warmington lied for Purdue Pharma then, and she continues to lie to Granite Staters now.”
Background:
On the same day in 2002 that Warmington testified before a Senate committee and called OxyContin a “miracle drug” with “very few side effects”, former Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Donald Shumway clashed with Purdue Pharma and even noted that the State had already met with company officials about OxyContin prior to the hearing.
Commissioner Shumway’s testimony makes it clear that state officials were already sounding the alarm on the dangers of OxyContin due to growing addiction and crime related problems tied to the drug in New Hampshire.
Excerpts from DHHS Commissioner Donald Shumway’s Testimony:
“Very minor cost savings. The primary importance of prior authorization in that particular, OxyContin, is quality issues, that is, we believe that Purdue Pharma has manufactured a drug which is highly addictive and it’s in a form… they produced in a form which makes it abuseable; that is a problem that they need to correct, and I hope they do.” (Committee Notes pg. 29)
“While we are all worried about bio-terrorism, what we are also seeing was that the impact of this medication, this very addictive medication was becoming a major problem for our state, and it has continued to be so with additional drugstore robberies in other parts of the state reported, every few weeks, you see yet another one. These are important issues and they are part of our responsibility to manage, we take those issues very seriously.” (Committee Notes pg. 25)
“Ask them if their studies looked at the individual cost of addiction, it ruins lives and it kills people. Ask them if their studies looked at the impact on families of what happens when a young person in a family gets out of control, addicted and driven by an addictive medication. Ask them if they include the cost of police of investigating drugstore robberies, and the cost to the state of New Hampshire of imprisoning people for that. I doubt if they have included those costs and they are important to consider.” (Committee Notes pg. 25)
“In doing so, we have engaged in extensive public discussion. Could there be more, of course there could always be more, and in fact, it is ongoing. In the last weeks we met again with the Representatives of Purdue Pharma, and Jon Wallace, I believe, met with them last week. They stated that we have rejected their concerns, we haven’t rejected anyone’s concerns. We maintain an open ear to all concerns.” (Committee Notes pg. 24)
Later that day, Nancy Wiggins testified on behalf of the New Hampshire State Police:
“The second thing that I noticed is that more pharmacists were reporting crimes of doctor shopping for OxyContin.” (Committee Notes pg. 61)
“We have had a number of night break-ins, armed robberies, unarmed robberies, and strong-arm robberies which OxyContin had been demanded. The people who are abusing these drugs are willing to risk committing more serious crimes because nothing else matters but getting those drugs.” (Committee Notes pg. 61)
“OxyContin is the drug being sold and traded, is it the only one being sold and traded; no, but it seems to be the drug of choice of a lot of drug abusers.” (Committee Notes pg. 61)
