Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Under Intense Fire For Role In Opioid Epidemic, Purdue Announces It Will Stop Marketing OxyContin
Reuters: OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma Stops Promoting Opioids, Cuts Sales Staff
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma said on Saturday that it has cut its sales force in half and will stop promoting opioids to physicians, following widespread criticism of the ways drugmakers market addictive painkillers. The drugmaker said it will inform doctors Monday that its sales representatives will no longer visit physicians’ offices to discuss the company’s opioid products. It will now have about 200 sales representatives, Purdue said. (2/10)
The Hill: OxyContin Maker Will Stop Marketing Opioid Products To Doctors Amid Scrutiny
"We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers," the company said in a statement. Purdue also said it will start referring opioid-related requests and questions from prescribers to health-care professionals in its medical affairs department. (Greenwood, 2/10)
Bloomberg: Pain Pill Giant Purdue To Stop Promotion Of Opioids To Doctors
OxyContin, approved in 1995, is the closely held company’s biggest-selling drug, though sales of the pain pill have declined in recent years amid competition from generics. It generated $1.8 billion in 2017, down from $2.8 billion five years earlier, according to data compiled by Symphony Health Solutions. It also sells the painkiller Hysingla. Purdue is credited with helping develop many modern tactics of aggressive pharmaceutical promotion. (Hopkins, 2/9)
PBS NewsHour: OxyContin Maker Purdue Will Stop Selling Doctors On Opioids
Amid several lawsuits that accuse manufacturing giant Purdue Pharma of contributing to the country’s opioid epidemic, the company announced Saturday it will cut sales staff by more than half and stop marketing opioids to doctors. Reporter Lev Facher, who wrote for STAT that it marked the end of an aggressive, opioid marketing era that Purdue created, joins Hari Sreenivasan from Washington, D.C. (Facher, 2/11)
