The mission of the Tufts Health Care Institute Program on Opioid Risk Management is to address challenges in the development and utilization of opioid analgesics, by engaging a multidisciplinary group of stakeholders focused on optimizing the benefits of opioid for pain management, and minimizing their risks, including abuse and diversion.

Sponsors

Sustaining Partners

Endo Pharmaceuticals    

Endo Pharmaceuticals is a specialty pharmaceutical company with an established leadership in pain management. Endo researches, develops, produces and markets prescription pharmaceuticals used primarily to treat and manage pain, and is expanding its presence in complementary therapeutic areas. Endo is committed to advancing the care of patients with acute and chronic pain through focused research and development programs, innovative technology and delivery systems, and educational initiatives that advocate the responsible use of pain medications.

King Pharmaceuticals

King Pharmaceuticals® began operations in January 1994, after purchasing the company’s Bristol Tennessee facility and assuming contracts to manufacture prescription pharmaceutical products for such prominent companies as SmithKline Beecham Corporation, predecessor to GlaxoSmithKline, and Novartis.

For the next ten years, King principally focused on the manufacture, acquisition, and marketing of previously approved products. Under new leadership, the company shifted its strategy to position itself to become a leading developer and acquirer of novel branded pharmaceutical products in later stages of development, focusing on three main therapeutic areas, cardiovascular/metabolics, neuroscience and hospital/acute care.

King’s labor force has grown from an initial 145 to approximately 2700 employees involved in every discipline of a major pharmaceutical company, including sales and marketing, research and development, regulatory affairs, quality management, and manufacturing.

Purdue Pharma                     

Purdue Pharma L.P., a privately held pharmaceutical company founded by physicians, is focused on the needs of patients. Together with its independent associated companies, Purdue is dedicated to finding, developing, and bringing to market new medicines and related products that promote health and healing. The company has long been known for its pioneering research on persistent pain, a principal cause of human suffering. Purdue has also applied its expertise to other therapeutic areas such as respiratory diseases, oncology, and bacterial infections, and to a growing line of non-prescription products including laxatives, microbicides, and nutraceuticals. The company is dedicated to serving the evolving needs of healthcare providers, patients, and caregivers with innovative prescription and non-prescription medicines. A commitment to innovation and caring spans every aspect of the organization, from discovering and introducing new medicines to demonstrating their medical value.

Purdue has led the battle against inadequate treatment of pain by developing sustained-release medications to manage pain and provide meaningful benefits for patients. Its sales, marketing, and medical education professionals provide the healthcare community with comprehensive educational materials and programs relating to pain management.

In 1993, to raise awareness of the importance of pain management, Purdue established Partners Against Pain®. This alliance of patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers seeks to alleviate unnecessary suffering by advancing standards of pain care through education and advocacy. Purdue has also assumed a leading role in addressing the serious public health problem of prescription drug abuse. The company has implemented a comprehensive program designed to assist in detection of the illegal trafficking and abuse of prescription drugs without compromising patient access to proper pain control.

At its research facilities in Cranbury, New Jersey, Purdue scientists are discovering new weapons against pain and developing innovative formulations and delivery systems to improve patient compliance and safety while at the same time reduce the risk of unwarranted product tampering. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been committed to the development of new forms of analgesics designed to be resistant to tampering while still providing safe and effective pain control for patients.

Millennium Laboratories

Millennium Laboratories, Inc. is a national, research-based medication monitoring company whose test panels, technology, customer support, educational resources and experts are specifically focused on clinicians who treat chronic pain. The company has the only major Urine Drug Testing (UDT) laboratory exclusively utilizing the latest cutting-edge technology, Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry/Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). This allows Millennium to provide the fastest turn-around time in the industry for determining the presence and precise levels of drugs in a patient’s urine, usually in one business day.

Located in San Diego’s life sciences cluster, Millennium offers pain management practitioners industry-leading test accuracy in conjunction with clinical decision support through its RADAR Hotline 12 hours every business day. Millennium is the only reference laboratory certified as a training facility for clinical toxicologist scientists and operates as a unique research component of the University of California, San Diego’s (UCSD) doctoral program in Pharmacy. Millennium serves as an industry, government and payer educator and a compassionate advocate for pain sufferers throughout the United States. The company is accredited by The Joint Commission, receiving the Gold Seal of Approval™ for healthcare quality and safety. For more information, visit the Millennium Laboratories website, http://www.becausepainmatters.com

Millennium Research Institute

Therapeutic drug monitoring company Millennium Laboratories established the non-profit Millennium Research Institute to address the questions at the forefront of pain management treatment that, when answered, will lead to further scientific discovery, advancements in the field of pain management, and improved treatment outcomes for those suffering with pain and pain-related disorders.

The mission of the Millennium Research Institute is to advance pain management and treatment outcomes through research, education and advocacy.

Millennium Research Institute is defining prescription drug compliance and diversion though development and dissemination of pharmacokinetic research to enhance pain management treatment and outcomes. The Institute’s research is increasing the understanding of drug metabolism to ensure safe utilization of pain management drugs and to provide evidence-based practice tools and information that supports pain professionals’ prescribing practices.

Millennium Research Institute maintains several national academic partnerships and supports collaborative research by accessing Millennium Laboratories’ unique database representing the U.S. pain population. Through its research and education programs, Millennium sits squarely in the community of professionals advancing the understanding of pain.

Funding for the THCI Program on Opioid Risk Management summit meeting "Payer Issues Related to Prescription Opioid Monitoring and Abuse" in June 2010 was made possible (in part) by (PA-08-149) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention by trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.