>>11209437 (lb)
Interesting linguistic connection. This category of drug is made from the pituitary gland of pigs and is used to treat a ton of diseases. It's made by Mallinckrodt, the largest US manufacturer of
Generic Oxycodone
Adrenocorticotropic hormone is used as a medication and as diagnostic agent in the ACTH stimulation test.[1][2]:316,1165[3]:84,271
The form that is purified from pig pituitary glands is known as corticotropin[1][2]:316 is a medication and naturally occurring polypeptide tropic hormone produced and secreted by the anterior pituitary gland.[3]:84
The form that is made synthetically is tetracosactide, also known as tetracosactrin and cosyntropin.[2]:1165[3]:271[4] It consists of the first 24 (of a total of 39) amino acids of ACTH and retains full function of the parent peptide.[2]:1165 Tetracosactide stimulates the release of corticosteroids such as cortisol from the adrenal glands, and is used for the ACTH stimulation test to assess adrenal gland function
A corticotrophin called H.P. Acthar Gel was approved in 1952 and as of January 2017 was under the control of Mallinckrodt.[21] A repository version of H.P. Acthar gel was approved in 2010 and as of January 2017 was also under the control of Mallinkrodt.
Mallinckrodt acquired the US rights to the animal-derived form via its acquisition of Questcor Pharmaceuticals in 2014.[32] When Questcor acquired the drug in 2001 it sold for $40 a vial; within a year of the acquisition Questcor raised the price of the drug to $1,500 per vial and to $28,000 by 2013.[33][34] In 2013, Questcor acquired the US rights to a competing product, Synacthen Depot, from Novartis.[34] In 2014 Mallinckrodt raised the price of Acthar further to $34,000.[35][36] The Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from five states sued Mallinckrodt for anti-competitive behavior with regard to the acquisition of Synacthen Depot and the monopolistic pricing of Acthar, and in January 2017 the company settled, agreeing to pay $100 million and to license Synacthen Depot to a competitor.[32] According to Kaiser Health News, Mallinckrodt responded by increasing its Congressional lobbying to $610,000, and its contributions to Congress members to $44,000, in the first quarter of 2017.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrenocorticotropic_hormone_(medication)
Prescription opioid scandal
A US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) database was made public in 2019 that tracks every opioid pill sold in the United States from 2006 through 2012. The database shows that the "vast majority of the 76 billion opioid pills produced and shipped from 2006 through 2012 to three companies", one of which was SpecGx, a subsidiary of Mallinckrodt. In those years SpecGx supplied 28.9 billion oxycodone pills, more than 80 for each person in the United States, and over 2 billion pills just in Florida.[6]
In 2011 the DEA complained to Mallinckrodt about the problem of excessive prescription opioid shipments to pharmacies. DEA officials showed the company the hundreds of millions of doses of oxycodone it was shipping to distributors and the correspondingly high number of arrests being made for oxycodone possession and sale in those areas. Negotiations between the DEA and Mallinckrodt ensued, and in 2017 Mallinckrodt paid a $35 million fine to settle DEA complaints it did not adequately address suspicious opioid orders, acknowledging “certain aspects of Mallinckrodt’s system to monitor and detect suspicious orders did not meet" DEA standards.[6]
Mallinckrodt announced in April 2019 a plan to change its name to Sonorant Therapeutics, and spin off ‘Mallinckrodt Inc.’ as a separate company for its generics business. Legal liabilities that result from opioid litigation would “remain with Mallinckrodt Inc. or its subsidiaries following the separation.”[6]
In February 2020, the company struck a $1.6 billion deal with Florida and dozens of other states to settle lawsuits over its role in the US opioid crisis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallinckrodt