A Drug Company Exploited a Safety Requirement to Make Money, NYT

[Jaybee00]

Some people with MECFS use this drug.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/28/...zYJr3VfCqEZYn6TjBp7bk-e241zflA&smid=url-share

 

[Trish]

The article is about a drug for narcolepsy that has been abused as a date rape drug.

Since 2005, Jazz has enjoyed a near monopoly on treating the main symptoms of narcolepsy, which include excessive daytime sleepiness, loss of muscle control and interrupted sleep. Jazz sells two versions of its drug, called Xyrem and Xywav.

Jazz’s medication is a pharmaceutical-grade derivative of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB, which is tightly regulated because of its history of abuse as a date rape drug after health food stores sold it as a dietary supplement in the late 1980s.

I haven't read the whole article, but it seems to be about shenagans by the drug company to ensure they have exclusive patents for a long time.

 

[Jaybee00]

Yeah, I read it quickly and found the shenanigans a bit hard to follow, but about a greedy pharma company that really didn’t do any development of the drug. Some clinicians in the USA prescribe oxybate for MECFS patients https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_oxybate