The history of OxyContin, told through unsealed Purdue documents
PIKEVILLE, Ky. — STAT’s multiyear legal battle to unseal secret Purdue Pharma files in a Kentucky court has produced dozens of documents that lay bare new details about the company’s marketing strategy and the role of Dr. Richard Sackler, a member of the family that founded and controls Purdue, in making OxyContin a top-selling pain pill.
Starting in the early 1990s, the internal emails and other documents describe Purdue’s preparation for the opioid’s launch in 1996, its plans for targeting OxyContin to non-cancer patients with chronic pain, and how the company aggressively fought off threats to its blockbuster’s sales, even as the opioid epidemic took hold.
Below is a timeline of Purdue’s activities as revealed by the newly released documents (and some that were already public), and excerpts from those records. Click on the links to read the full documents.
June 15, 1993 to April 15, 1994: Purdue conducted a clinical trial in elderly patients with osteoarthritis to test the safety and efficacy of OxyContin. It enrolled 133 patients, but only 63 completed the trial. About 82% of the patients had some sort of adverse event related to the treatment. Yet Purdue concluded that the study “demonstrated that [controlled-release] Oxycodone is a safe and effective analgesic for the control of osteoarthritis-related pain.”
: Sales and marketing executive Michael Friedman (who would later become Purdue’s CEO) sent a memo marked “very confidential” to three members of the Sackler family, including Richard, outlining the planned marketing strategy.
