Purdue Pharma
Added Apr 22, 2020
Purdue Pharma is a global drug company founded in 1892. Employing more than 5,000 workers worldwide, Purdue is known for making opioid-based painkillers, most notably it's flagship product, OxyContin.
Company Behavior Summary
- Purdue aggressively pushed doctors to prescribe OxyContin, courting doctors with paid trips and speaking engagements
- Purdue actively marketed OxyContin as a drug with a low potential for abuse, even though that claim came with little scientific evidence
- As reports of OxyContin abuse and addiction flooded in during the early 2000s, Purdue continued to aggressively push the drug, despite knowing that it was being abused and had a high potential for addiction
- In the 2010s, as the opioid crisis in the United States grew in intensity and doctors began prescribing OxyContin less frequently, Purdue began using similar techniques that had been so successful in the United States to drive OxyContin sales in foreign countries.
Sources
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