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Pain Pill Giant Purdue to Stop Promotion of Opioids to Doctors
Pain-pill giant Purdue Pharma LP will stop promoting its opioid drugs to doctors, a retreat after years of criticism that the company's aggressive sales efforts helped lay the foundation of the U.S. addiction crisis.
The company told employees this week that it would cut its sales force by more than half, to 200 workers. It plans to send a letter Monday to doctors saying that its salespeople will no longer come to their clinics to talk about the company's pain products.
"We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers," the company said in a statement. Instead, any questions doctors have will be directed to the Stamford, Connecticut-based company's medical affairs department.
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.
Also at Reuters, USA Today, The Verge, and CNN.
Previously: City of Everett, Washington Sues OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma
OxyContin's 12-Hour Problem
South Carolina Sues OxyContin Maker Purdue
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday February 12 2018, @11:37PM (1 child)
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/892290 [medscape.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Tuesday February 13 2018, @12:16AM
My brother is a physician and he used to be invited (all expenses paid) to various "conferences" on the beach, ski resorts and the like at least a few times a year.
These days any compensation (including gifts, lunches, trips and the like) must be reported on the Open Payments Database [cms.gov], which has cut down on the outright bribery.
But having someone in your face, taking you to lunch, giving you samples and pushing marketing materials at you can have an effect. In fact, that's been big pharma's playbook for a very, very long time.
I think that arbitraging drug costs from outside the US would be a good first step. It would either cause the pharmaceutical companies to reduce their prices in the US or raise them around the world. If the former, Americans won't be raped as badly by these ridiculous prices. If the latter, they'd find out that they really need to charge reasonable prices or folks just won't use their drugs.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr