The manufacturer of oxycontin agreed to pay $20 million in penalties for encouraging docs to prescribe the drug more often than approved by the FDA.
And that’s just for starters.
The feds have hit Purdue for $600 million, and three of the drug manufacturers’ execs will be sending another $34.5 million from their (apparently rather considerable) personal checking accounts. The big problem for Purdue apparently was their effort to minimize the addictive potential of the drug in marketing materials and pitches to physicians. This, combined with Purdue reps’ aggressive efforts to get docs to prescribe the drug for use every eight hours instead of the FDA-approved twelve, landed the company in deep trouble.
A Canadian province is also considering suing Purdue Pharma; with the recent federal settlement I’d expect other injured parties to step forward as well.
Oxycontin’s been in the news off and on for years, perhaps most notably as the drug of choice for erstwhile entertainer Rush Limbaugh. Oxy and generic equivalent oxycodone is commonly prescribed in workers compensation; addicted claimants are an all-too-common problem in WC.
Purdue will always have a special place in my heart as my first real professional interview out of college. I didn’t take the job, opting to move south instead of stay in the New York area, but they had just built a new office building in Norwalk, a really beautiful space, and Oxy seemed like it was pretty much their entire revenue stream. They came off as practically a mom and pop outfit that happened to find themselves in possession of a billion dollar drug. It doesn’t surprise me that they were willing to do whatever it took to keep that gravy train flowing.