Public radio doesn’t quite know what it wants us to think about the anti-addiction medicine Vivitrol.
At the beginning of the month Marketplace was touting Vivitrol as the “drug that heroin-proofs your brain,” a sort of magic bullet for shooting the old monkey off one’s back. The drug is essential, we were told, in keeping junkies out of jail. An addiction specialist raved that Vivitrol acts like “a kind of a force field around the part of your brain that likes heroin.” The medicine is regularly given to inmates upon release from prison, so they can stay clean: It works “really, really well,” said the addiction expert. “We wish we had medications like this for hypertension or diabetes or depression, but we don’t.”
So what’s the problem with this miracle cure? Just that “despite campaign promises by President Trump,” Republicans aren’t supporting the health care spending that would pay the “sky-high prices” of this amazing drug.
That was the same theme June 11, when Weekend Edition complained of Republican stinginess in a feature titled “GOP’s Proposed Cuts to Medicaid Threaten Treatment for Opioid Addiction.” If Republicans get their way, what will become of the addicts who need their monthly Vivitrol shot? Addicts such as Charlene Yurgaitis: “The medication blocks receptors in her brain so she can’t get high off opioids but also costs about a thousand dollars a dose.”
“If funding is reduced,” warns a doctor, “more people would die from overdoses, and hepatitis C and HIV infections would rise because of dirty needles.” Well, by all means then, find the money to buy all the Vivitrol we need—and what’s wrong with you Republicans anyway?
At least that’s what we thought until the very next day, June 12, when All Things Considered unleashed an outraged exposé of the company that produces Vivitrol, “A Drugmaker Tries to Cash In on The Opioid Epidemic, One State Law at a Time.” The company has been marketing the heck out of Vivitrol, pushing for it to be favored legislatively, even though, according to NPR’s investigation, cheaper alternatives such as methadone may be the better choice. Vivitrol is “expensive, and to use it, patients must first go through a painful detox,” said reporter Jake Harper. “Policies favoring Vivitrol can hurt people who need the other drugs.”
So, let’s see if we can get this straight: According to public radio, nasty Republicans are hurting poor, helpless addicts by denying them an essential medication that has been overhyped and overpriced by a greedy corporation corrupting state lawmakers. It may not be coherent, but as a thesis it at least has the benefit, for NPR, of all the right villains.
