WHO retracts opioid guidelines after accepting that industry had an influence

The World Health Organization has formally retracted its two main guidelines on the use of opioids for pain control, after its own review lent credence to outside complaints that the drafting process had been unduly influenced by opioid manufacturers, notably Purdue Pharma’s international subsidiary Mundipharma.

The retraction notice was published in the January issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.1 The retracted guidelines are Ensuring Balance in National Policies on Controlled Substances,2 published in 2011, and WHO Guidelines on the …