{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=e47e40e4-254a-4d54-aab1-500b1854bc15", "Scheme in Washington could hurt W.Va. communities, Manchin calls emergency Senate hearing | Bluefield Daily Telegraph", "2013-10-14", "2013", "2013-10", "Democrat", "House", "WV", "Joe Manchin", "M001183", "www.manchin.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "October 14, 2013\n\t\t\t Scheme in Washington could hurt W.Va. communities, Manchin calls emergency Senate hearing | Bluefield Daily Telegraph \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin called Wednesday for an emergency Senate hearing into reports of a \u201cpay to play\u201d scheme in Washington that could be hurting West Virginia communities by making it easier for doctors to write prescriptions for certain painkillers.\r\nCiting a report by Peter Whoriskey of The Washington Post, Manchin said that private pharmaceutical companies paid as much as $25,000 per meeting recently to participate in a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel discussions on federal regulations for prescription painkillers.\r\nTwo academic researchers set up the meetings, in order to provide advice to the FDA on how to weigh evidence from clinical trials.\r\nA leading FDA official later called the group \u201can essential, collaborative effort.\u201d\r\nAccording to Manchin, the \u201cpay to play scheme\u201d could explain why FDA officials have disregarded recommendations by its own advisory panel to make it harder for patients to be prescribed certain hydrocodone pills.\r\n\u201cI am gravely concerned by the allegations of \u2018pay to play\u2019 between the FDA and pain medicine companies and am calling for a full investigation to see how deep this goes,\u201d said Manchin. \u201cIf these allegations are true, they explain why it has taken the FDA almost a year to reach a decision to reschedule hydrocodone even after their own expert advisory panel recommended it.\u201d\r\nThe FDA \u201cschedules,\u201d or classifies, drugs based in part on how addictive they can be and how \u201ceasy\u201d it is to fall into abusing them. The schedule system is designed to protect patients\u2019 interests. The system also regulates how doctors write scripts for drugs.\r\nEight months ago, an internal FDA panel of 29 scientists and researchers had urged FDA regulators in a 19-to-10 vote to re-classify hydrocodone/acetaminophen combination drugs like Lortab and Vicodin as \u201cSchedule II\u201d because they have a higher potential for addiction and abuse.\r\nThe Schedule II classification would limit doctors to writing only one 30-day prescription for the pills, under typical circumstances. (A 90day supply could be written on three, separate scripts.) To date, the FDA still classifies hydrocodone \u201ccombo\u201d drugs as Schedule III, meaning that doctors may legally write prescriptions with up to five refills \u2014 a key draw for addicts and those who sell the drugs on the black market for huge profits.\r\n\u201cI\u2019m asking for a full Senate investigation,\u201d said Manchin Wednesday. \u201cI want to find out how someone adopted the policy of \u2018pay to play.\u2019 \u201cI\u2019ve never heard of such a thing,\u201d Manchin told reporters. \u201cThat might explain why we have never been able to get the hydrocodone rescheduled.\r\n\u201cThis is ridiculous \u2014 having a government agency ... paid to say what\u2019s on the market,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense to me.\u201d\r\nManchin stopped short of accusing FDA officials of criminal wrongdoing.\r\nHe added, \u201cBut I sure as heck want to find out.\u201d\r\nManchin said it at least appears that the $9 billion painkiller industry in the United States may have influenced public policy in a way that has increased drug addiction in West Virginia.\r\nManchin added that when the National Institutes of Health challenged the FDA on the panel, FDA officials continued with the arrangement, anyway.\r\n\u201cIt looks like they were buying access to direct policy and not to the benefit of the consumer,\u201d Manchin said. \u201cI\u2019m going to take it all the way to the Department of Justice and anywhere else.\u201d\r\nThe Center for Disease Control has reported an increase in overdose deaths each year since 1999, with 60 percent of the overdose deaths involving prescription drugs.\r\nOf the prescription drug deaths, oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone and others represented 75 percent of the deaths.\r\nManchin, who has pushed for a reclassification of hydrocodone combo drugs for several years, had testified last year before the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee that hydrocodone combination drugs should be rescheduled, due to the high risk of addiction.\r\n\u201cAll manufacturers of the drugs have opposed it,\u201d he reported.\r\nWest Virginia has the highest rate of deaths due to drug overdoses in the nation, according to a national report released Monday.\r\n\u201cIt is a shame that some of these companies were able to influence the FDA\u2019s decision with a $25,000 contribution, while West Virginian families are destroyed by the addiction these pills cause,\u201d Manchin stated.\r\nManchin acknowledged reports from constituents that some pill abusers take advantage of public assistance to get painkiller prescriptions from doctors and often sell those same pills in the community.\r\n\u201cFor a Schedule III right now, if you get the right doctor, they can prescribe you six months (supply) in a day,\u201d said Manchin. \u201cIf the law allows them to do it and maybe some would do it; they\u2019re not breaking the law.\r\n\u201cIf we get this rescheduled from III to II, they will be breaking the law.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=e47e40e4-254a-4d54-aab1-500b1854bc15"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2439410202205181, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}