Fentanyl remains a popular street drug today. The DEA Philadelphia Division recently noted that a new prescription fentanyl drug, Actiq, is available on the streets. An Actiq unit consists of a medicated, raspberry-flavored lozenge on a handle and is known on the street as a "Percopop," likely due to their resemblance to lollipops.
According to the 2005 DEA Pennsylvania Fact Sheet, investigations indicate that diversion of products such as fentanyl patches and Actiq, continues to be a problem. "Primary methods of diversion being reported are illegal sale and distribution by health care professionals and workers, "doctor shopping" (going to a number of doctors to obtain prescriptions for a controlled pharmaceutical), forged prescriptions, and the Internet," it states.
On May 10, 2005, ABC News reported that a string of overdose deaths and robberies, all linked to fentanyl, raised concerns among police officials in parts of Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio.
In most of the cases the fentanyl linked to the overdoses had been taken from a relative of one of the people involved, ABC reported.
On August 15, 2005, NBC News reported that police said fentanyl disguised as heroin had caused multiple overdoses on the West Side of Chicago and had been given away by members of a street gang in order to acquire new customers.
Six months later, on February 6, 2006, Chicago police warned that drug dealers on the South Side might be selling fentanyl as heroin on the city streets.
On February 7, 2006, the Chicago Sun-Times reported from unnamed sources that the drug may be linked to as many as a dozen recent fatal overdoses in a small area of Chicago's South Side.
The Sun-Times reported on February 11, 2006, that laboratory "tests on some of the fatal overdose victims who Chicago Police suspected may have died last month from a bad batch of heroin indicate the presence of the powerful pain-killer fentanyl."
At least 10 fatal overdoses are under investigation the Times said.
On February 23, 2006, the Associated Press reported that four Aiken County South Carolina residents had recently died from overdoses of fentanyl. The deaths were caused by people either injecting or inhaling fentanyl after extracting the drug from a patch, according to the County Coroner, Tim Carlton.
Demi Garvin, forensic lab director for the Richland County Sheriff's Department, told the AP reporter: "We probably get several a month that are related to the drug across South Carolina."
Its obvious that the FDA needs to conduct a much more thorough investigation when considering whether to allow fentanyl patches to remain on the market. However, its not likely to happen while the FDA officials in charge are joined at the hip to drug companies because the patches are real money-makers for Pharma.
Mylan introduced its generic version of the patch in January 2005 and it accounted for substantially all of the $55 million in revenue the company earned from new products in its fiscal first quarter which ended June 30, 2005.
Worldwide sales of Duragesic in 2005 were $1.59 billion, according to Teresa Gaines, spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson. The cost of a 30-day supply of patches can range from $348 at Target to $408 at Wal-Mart.
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