One patient threatened to shoot Dr. Terry Hunt if physical therapy didn't relieve his pain as effectively as opioids did. Another harassed his staff, then roamed a hospital searching for Hunt.
Doctors who treat pain say threats of violence escalated markedly in recent years as mounting legal and regulatory pressure led many to prescribe alternatives to opioids.
Woodcock was named acting FDA commissioner by the new administration on the day Biden took office. The letter urged the president not to nominate her to permanently head the agency.
“In its opioid decision-making, Dr Woodcock, and the division she supervised, consistently put the interests of opioid manufacturers ahead of public health, often overruling its own scientific advisors and ignoring the pleas of public health groups, state Attorneys General, and outraged victims of the opioid crisis,” the letter said.
The Guardian has contacted the FDA for comment.
The signatories of the letter include the medical group Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, the consumer advocacy organisation Public Citizen, and campaign groups representing families harmed by opioids such as Fed Up!.