While I think the extreme marketing strategies and failure to release negative data on the part of drug companies is appalling, some patients who formerly had access to these drugs are now suffering.

I've a few friends and relatives for whom no other type of medication has worked and they are now in extreme pain. One of these people is my brother who has finally decided to undergo a hip replacement because he can no longer control the pain. Another friend has scheduled a knee replacement surgery. These patients were willing to take the risk by continuing on the drug. Each of their doctors and my own orthopedic surgeon have many similar cases. The problem, as I see it, is instead of promoting this drug for these kinds of serious pain, the drug companies attempted to market it for *all* types of pain including very minor pain.