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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/28/india-opioids-addiction-us-drugmakers-push-painkillers
.................................One place where some of the Sacklers’ about $13 billion fortune appears to have flowed is to Mundipharma, a worldwide network of independent associated companies that Sackler family members control through trusts and other investment vehicles....
In 2015, opioids accounted for 86 percent of the network’s European sales of 935 million euros ($1 billion), according to Mundipharma International. This year the group is targeting European revenue of 1 billion euros, with less than 40 percent coming from OxyContin and other opioids. ...
Outside the U.S., the network has units from Singapore to India and from China to the U.K., and while the companies are closely held, some have disclosed information about their ownership and directors. Trusts for the benefit of Richard and Jonathan Sackler owned half of Mundipharma Research Ltd. in Cambridge, England, according to a 2015 filing.
Rosebay Medical, one of the defendants in New York State’s complaint, is one of the two owners of Mundipharma’s Australian business, according to data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Eleven Sackler family members served on its board at different periods of time be
Boxes of OxyContin, sold in China by Mundipharma Pharmaceutical.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
Rosebay Medical, one of the defendants in New York State’s complaint, is one of the two owners of Mundipharma’s Australian business, according to data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Eleven Sackler family members served on its board at different periods of time between 1998 and 2012, the commission’s database shows.
Any efforts by drugmakers like the Mundipharma companies to promote emerging-market demand for opioids have the potential to be dangerous, warns Jason White, chair of the World Health Organization’s expert committee on drug dependence. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-30/oxycontin-billionaires-chase-global-profits-to-offset-u-s-woes
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VARNEY: There are not doctors standing behind those kiosks. The Indian government will tell you that they are regulating all of this, that it is difficult to get access to these drugs. But that is just not the case. I was able to step up to another kiosk and buy an actual shot of tramadol from Abbott Laboratories. You can go in and buy patches of buprenorphine or fentanyl that are made by Johnson & Johnson and Mundipharma, which is the international affiliate of Purdue Pharma.
So these drugs are readily available. And certainly, there are good actors who are trying to ensure that they don't have a U.S.-style opioid epidemic. There's a lot of concern about that there. But the reality is, this market is just so vast - you know, you're talking about tens of thousands of doctors spread out over this country - that it's just incredibly difficult to regulate....
So last fall, the Indian government launched what is essentially the world's biggest public health insurance program. Over there, they dub it Modicare, and it guarantees half a billion poor Indians about $7,000 in hospital expenses. Now, this is going to be paid to private insurers. But by 2020, the government is saying it's going to open 150,000 primary care centers. So the government has set aside about $484 million to fund this program. And it's certainly the case that drug companies understand that now there is a payer for their products. Whether you go into the hospital, and now you can have some pain treatment along with whatever kind of procedure you are getting done, there's now somebody who actually can pay for this, as well.
MARTIN: So a burgeoning market, to be sure.
VARNEY: Absolutely.
MARTIN:
VARNEY: Thank you, Rachel. https://www.npr.org/2019/09/05/757803872/u-s-drugmakers-target-the-booming-opioid-market-in-india
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Boxes of OxyContin, sold in China by Mundipharma Pharmaceutical.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
Outside the U.S., the network has units from Singapore to India and from China to the U.K., and while the companies are closely held, some have disclosed information about their ownership and directors. Trusts for the benefit of Richard and Jonathan Sackler owned half of Mundipharma Research Ltd. in Cambridge, England, according to a 2015 filing.
Boxes of OxyContin, sold in China by Mundipharma Pharmaceutical.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
Boxes of OxyContin, sold in China by Mundipharma Pharmaceutical.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
Rosebay Medical, one of the defendants in New York State’s complaint, is one of the two owners of Mundipharma’s Australian business, according to data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Eleven Sackler family members served on its board at different periods of time between 1998 and 2012, the commission’s database shows
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