Origins of an epidemic: Purdue Pharma knew its opioids were widely abused
The company was aware early on that OxyContin was being crushed and snorted for its powerful narcotic, but continued to promote it as less addictive
The New York Times (US)
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Purdue Pharma, the company that planted the seeds of the opioid epidemic through its aggressive marketing of OxyContin, has long claimed it was unaware of the powerful opioid painkiller’s growing abuse until years after it went on the market. But a copy of a confidential Justice Department report shows that federal prosecutors investigating the company found that Purdue Pharma knew about “significant” abuse of OxyContin in the first years after the drug’s introduction in 1996 and concealed that information. But the drug maker continued “in the face of this knowledge” to market OxyContin as less prone to abuse and addiction than other prescription opioids, prosecutors wrote in 2006.
