FDA: Please do not approve the use of Oxycontin on children ages 6-16 years old for moderate to severe pain (i.e. for diagnoses other than sickle-cell anemia, cancer, and major burns).
Why is this important?
My brother, Darin "Koncreet" McClintock, accidentally overdosed on Oxycontin at the age of 32. He was a successful business man and had been married for almost three years. Darin was prescribed Oxycontin because of a broken arm he sustained in a snowboarding accident. Oxycontin, in the same family as heroin and morphine, is a highly addictive opioid and is causing unnecessary and tragic deaths all over the country.
Purdue Pharma LP is currently conducting a trial of Oxycontin on children aged 6-16 for moderate to severe pain, aiming to gain FDA approval to label the controversial painkiller for use by children as young as 6 and extend its patent on the drug, which is set to expire in 2013. Please join me in opposing FDA approval of Oxycontin for young children.
