OxyContin maker Purdue to stop promoting opioids in light of epidemic

[Eugene]

Source: NBC News

FEB 10 2018, 7:53 PM ET

OxyContin maker Purdue to stop promoting opioids in light of epidemic

by PHIL MCCAUSLAND and TRACY CONNOR

Purdue Pharma, the company best known for selling the prescription painkiller OxyContin, announced on Saturday that they would stop marketing opioid drugs to doctors. The move comes amid a series of state and municipal lawsuits that blame the company for contributing to the opioid epidemic.

Purdue has faced criticism for more than a decade that it has aggressively and irresponsibly pushed the sale of its drug OxyContin. The company said Saturday that it would cut its sales force by more than 50 percent, with approximately 200 people remaining in the department.

"We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers," Purdue said in a statement.

The company plans to run all questions about its highly profitable drug Oxycontin — which the American Addiction Centers said has a strong “potential for addiction and subsequent withdrawal symptoms” — through its medical affairs department.

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Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/americas-heroin-epidemic/oxycontin-maker-purdue-stop-promoting-opioids-light-epidemic-n846726

[Yonnie3]

1. Are they doing this for the good of humanity or to try to reduce liability?

The "more than a decade" is a clue.

[Squinch]

2. And what the hell, no loss to them, they already have the nation addicted. Not like sales will drop.