Purdue Pharma to cease marketing Oxycontin and opioid drugs in the US.
Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin ,is to stop promoting the drug to doctors and halve its salesforce, as it faces a growing number of lawsuits over its role in the US opioid crisis. Purdue Pharma said its remaining 200 sales representatives would no longer visit doctors� offices to promote its opioid drugs.
OxyContin is Purdue�s biggest-selling drug though sales are down from $2.8bn five years earlier. Purdue said: �We have restructured and significantly reduced our We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers.�
Comment: In 2016, opioids, including prescription drugs, fentanyl and heroin, killed more than 42,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control, with more than 40% of overdose deaths involving a prescription opioid. Deaths from prescription drugs alone have quadrupled since 1999, the CDC reported.
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