Five opioid manufacturers including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma have paid more than $10 million (Dh37m) to advocacy groups and doctors tied to them, many of whom amplified industry messages supporting the use of the painkillers, a US Senate report said on Monday.
The report, released by Missouri Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, said groups who received the donations aligned themselves with industry goals and may have played a role in an epidemic that in 2016 led to 42,000 opioid overdose deaths.
The report released by Ms McCaskill, the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s ranking Democrat, said the groups issued guidance promoting opioids for chronic pain and lobbied against laws to curb their use.
“These financial relationships were insidious, lacked transparency, and are one of many factors that have resulted in arguably the most deadly drug epidemic in American history,” Ms McCaskill said.
Purdue Pharma, which on Saturday announced it would stop promoting opioids to doctors, was the biggest donor, giving $4.15m to 12 groups from 2012 to 2017, the report said.
The groups include patient advocacy organisations and medical professional societies.
One recipient was the Academy of Integrative Pain Management (AIPM), which partnered with another group to lobby state legislatures on opioid-related issues and fight efforts to restrict opioid prescribing, the report said.
Purdue said that it supported organisations interested in helping patients receive appropriate care. AIPM executive director Bob Twillman said that financial contributions had not influenced its positions.
The report said Insys Therapeutics, which markets the fentanyl-based cancer pain drug Subsys, gave $3.15m to US Pain Foundation and others, ranking second in donations to the 14 groups examined.
Federal prosecutors have accused several former Insys executives and employees, including billionaire Insys founder John Kapoor, of engaging in a scheme to pay kickbacks to doctors to prescribe Subsys. Mr Kapoor has pleaded not guilty.
US Pain Foundation said the $2.5m Insys donated in 2017 was for a fund to help cancer patients pay for pain drugs, and that the money did not influence its values. Insys said it strives to follow regulations.
The report said the groups also received $1.07m from Depomed Inc, $465,142 from Johnson & Johnson and $20,250 from Mylan.
Doctors affiliated with the organisations received $1.6m, the report said.
Depomed declined to comment. J&J said it co-operated with Ms McCaskill. Mylan emphasised its small opioid marketshare.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
