Faced with prescriber fears of OxyContin misuse, Purdue sales reps misleadingly played up drug’s safety, documents show
PIKEVILLE, Ky. — A year and a half after the opioid painkiller OxyContin went on the market, a Purdue Pharma sales representative documented a physician’s concern about the burgeoning drug that would come up again and again.
“Dr worried re addiction w/ Oxy,” the sales rep wrote in a memo summarizing a visit with a Kentucky physician on Aug. 12, 1997.
The representative had a ready message to deflect such concerns: “Oxy is long-acting, has fewer peaks than other oxycodone combos, less addictive value.”
More than two dozen other notes from sales agents show they delivered a similar message to doctors as OxyContin was becoming a best-seller in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “Pushed hard on no buzz, less abuse,” one from the following day said. “Seemed to hear the Oxy mesage [sic] better on no buzz potential,” another note from the following week read.
Together, the selection of memos make clear that when some prescribers raised fears of OxyContin misuse, including in the early days of its availability as the drug was gaining a foothold in the market, the sales force consistently batted those concerns away with misleading assertions that the drug would cause less euphoria and was
