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posted by martyb on Friday November 22 2019, @08:57AM   Printer-friendly
from the if-it's-non-addicting,-give-it-to-every-exec-for-a-month dept.

Report: Sacklers using fake doctors, false marketing to sell OxyContin in China

The mega-rich family behind the OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma is back to selling its highly addictive pain-killer with underhanded tactics and deceptive advertising—this time in China, via its international company, Mundipharma. That’s all according to a searing new investigation by the Associated Press.

The Sackler family, which owns both Purdue and Mundipharma, is embroiled in litigation in the United States over its alleged role in sparking the country’s epidemic of opioid abuse and overdoses. Thousands of plaintiffs—many state and local governments—claim that Purdue and the Sacklers misled patients, doctors, and regulators on the addictiveness of their drugs, aggressively marketed them, and wooed doctors into over-prescribing them.

While Purdue has since declared bankruptcy and stopped promoting OxyContin in the US, the Sacklers seem to be employing the same practices in China.

Based on documents and interviews with multiple Mundipharma representatives in China, the AP investigation found that reps were at times posing as doctors, providing debunked information that its long-acting opioids are safe and less addictive, and even illegally copying private medical records of patients to inform sales tactics.

[...]Mundipharma, meanwhile, is still hiring in China.

The AP story linked above is in-depth and well worth reading. See also: HuffPost.


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  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday November 23 2019, @01:29AM (5 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Saturday November 23 2019, @01:29AM (#923588) Journal

    Oh, absolutely. Time to take all the warning labels off the tobacco products and lower the drinking age to "fetus" while we're at it, eh?

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    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
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  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday November 23 2019, @01:47AM (4 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Saturday November 23 2019, @01:47AM (#923598) Journal

    No, you should be able to walk up to the bar on your own power, exceptions for the disabled of course.

    If you want the government to oversee the industry, you have to oversee the government. I would think past history would make that self evident.

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    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday November 23 2019, @11:20PM (3 children)

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Saturday November 23 2019, @11:20PM (#923992) Journal

      Okay so drinking age of what, 12-18 months then? Maybe 3 years if enough speech to know what a gin and tonic is and ask for one is needed?

      I'm not joking here: what should the minimum age for drinking be and why? Ditto tobacco.

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
      • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday November 24 2019, @12:21AM (2 children)

        by fustakrakich (6150) on Sunday November 24 2019, @12:21AM (#924010) Journal

        what should the minimum age for drinking be and why?

        Around 25 years old. That's when the brain is sufficiently petrified ["matured"] according to the old car rental and insurance standards. I heard there's some physical evidence to back that up, but it was such a long time ago, I don't remember where. I would generally apply the same rules to all intoxicants, just to be safe.

        --
        La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
        • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday November 24 2019, @02:48AM (1 child)

          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday November 24 2019, @02:48AM (#924059) Journal

          And you would enforce this how...? :)

          --
          I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
          • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday November 24 2019, @05:31PM

            by fustakrakich (6150) on Sunday November 24 2019, @05:31PM (#924211) Journal

            The usual way, I guess. A bill with several sponsors is proposed in the house of representatives, goes through committee for a full house vote, passed to the senate, goes back and forth for a while, amendments put in, amendments removed, later approved by congress, and is sent to the president, which we presume will be on board :-)

            Then the liquor industry will challenge it in the courts, and the law will be quickly overturned. And... that's that...

            --
            La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..