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"A major thrust of the sales campaign was that OxyContin should be prescribed not merely for the kind of severe short-term pain associated with surgery or cance

"A major thrust of the sales campaign was that OxyContin should be prescribed not merely for the kind of severe short-term pain associated with surgery or cancer but also for less acute, longer-lasting pain: arthritis, back pain, sports injuries, fibromyalgia. The number of conditions that OxyContin could treat seemed almost unlimited. According to internal documents, Purdue officials discovered that many doctors wrongly assumed that oxycodone was less potent than morphine—a misconception that the company exploited." AND "But OxyContin is a controversial drug. Its sole active ingredient is oxycodone, a chemical cousin of heroin which is up to twice as powerful as morphine. In the past, doctors had been reluctant to prescribe strong opioids—as synthetic drugs derived from opium are known—except for acute cancer pain and end-of-life palliative care, because of a long-standing, and well-founded, fear about the addictive properties of these drugs. “Few drugs are as dangerous as the opioids,” David Kessler, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, told me. Purdue launched OxyContin with a marketing campaign that attempted to counter this attitude and change the prescribing habits of doctors. The company funded research and paid doctors to make the case that concerns about opioid addiction were overblown, and that OxyContin could safely treat an ever-wider range of maladies. Sales representatives marketed OxyContin as a product “to start with and to stay with.” Millions of patients found the drug to be a vital salve for excruciating pain. But many others grew so hooked on it that, between doses, they experienced debilitating withdrawal."\ AND "Richard Sackler worked tirelessly to make OxyContin a blockbuster, telling colleagues how devoted he was to the drug’s success. The F.D.A. approved OxyContin in 1995, for use in treating moderate to severe pain. Purdue had conducted no clinical studies on how addictive or prone to abuse the drug might be. But the F.D.A., in an unusual step, approved a package insert for OxyContin which announced that the drug was safer than rival painkillers, because the patented delayed-absorption mechanism “is believed to reduce the abuse liability.” David Kessler, who ran the F.D.A. at the time, told me that he was “not involved in the approval.” The F.D.A. examiner who oversaw the process, Dr. Curtis Wright, left the agency shortly afterward. Within two years, he had taken a job at Purdue."

esyir 6y ago
>Its sole active ingredient is oxycodone, a chemical cousin of heroin which is up to twice as powerful as morphine. In the past, doctors had been reluctant to prescribe strong opioids—as synthetic drugs derived from opium are known—except for acute cancer pain and end-of-life palliative care, because of a long-standing, and well-founded, fear about the addictive properties of these drugs. “Few drugs are as dangerous as the opioids,” David Kessler, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, told me. This really reads to me rather badly. Twice as powerful isn't necessarily bad. Rather, if it was less abusable (as they claim) and equally addictive, that would represent and improvement over morphine. The issue might then lie in overzealous prescription/usage. ------ ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3550270/ > Oxycodone demonstrated high abuse liability on the basis of its high likability scores and a relative lack of negative subjective effects. I found this conclusion pretty interesting, though I just skimmed this article.
- in_recorvery 6y ago
  'less abusable' - using the term as you did e.g. route of administration is a gross Purdue marketing lie. Original formula oxycontin pills were insanely abusable. crushed up into ultra-fine powder very easily - like one of those sugar necklace candies. snortable and shootable. way easier to abuse than morphine which isn't super available in the US as a take home script. also to the 'powerful,' the doses prescribed were insane compared to the baseline of what was regularly prescribed before Purdue's marketing. E.g. 5mg oxycodone + acetaminophen compared to Oxy's going commonly up to 80MG in a single pill (30's were pretty standard on the street). I think they even have a 160mg but I have never actually seen in real life. That's INSANE like 240 morphine equivalent or something and likely taken at least 2x a day. This insane strength goes hand in hand with overzealous script writing. All of this was caused by Purdue's tactics. The 'OC' s (they are stamped this way) were on the market for a LONG time after Purdue was very aware of the criminal damage they were doing and the DEA and others were pushing for pill reformulation. They took forever to change to 'OP' which were less abusable at least not easily crushed and they gel up if trying to shoot (addicts will always find a way). Knowing how evil this company and family are I wouldn't be surprised if they waited a while to launch the new pill format for patent reasons but I don't know this The cycle of 'less abusive' opiate marketing has been going on for a hundred years. They are all abusable and addictive. Even maintenance opiates like buprenorphine you would be dependent on and users will still combine for instance methadone and other pills to get high.

esyir 6y ago

>Its sole active ingredient is oxycodone, a chemical cousin of heroin which is up to twice as powerful as morphine. In the past, doctors had been reluctant to prescribe strong opioids—as synthetic drugs derived from opium are known—except for acute cancer pain and end-of-life palliative care, because of a long-standing, and well-founded, fear about the addictive properties of these drugs. “Few drugs are as dangerous as the opioids,” David Kessler, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, told me. This really reads to me rather badly. Twice as powerful isn't necessarily bad. Rather, if it was less abusable (as they claim) and equally addictive, that would represent and improvement over morphine. The issue might then lie in overzealous prescription/usage. ------ ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3550270/ > Oxycodone demonstrated high abuse liability on the basis of its high likability scores and a relative lack of negative subjective effects. I found this conclusion pretty interesting, though I just skimmed this article.

in_recorvery 6y ago
'less abusable' - using the term as you did e.g. route of administration is a gross Purdue marketing lie. Original formula oxycontin pills were insanely abusable. crushed up into ultra-fine powder very easily - like one of those sugar necklace candies. snortable and shootable. way easier to abuse than morphine which isn't super available in the US as a take home script. also to the 'powerful,' the doses prescribed were insane compared to the baseline of what was regularly prescribed before Purdue's marketing. E.g. 5mg oxycodone + acetaminophen compared to Oxy's going commonly up to 80MG in a single pill (30's were pretty standard on the street). I think they even have a 160mg but I have never actually seen in real life. That's INSANE like 240 morphine equivalent or something and likely taken at least 2x a day. This insane strength goes hand in hand with overzealous script writing. All of this was caused by Purdue's tactics. The 'OC' s (they are stamped this way) were on the market for a LONG time after Purdue was very aware of the criminal damage they were doing and the DEA and others were pushing for pill reformulation. They took forever to change to 'OP' which were less abusable at least not easily crushed and they gel up if trying to shoot (addicts will always find a way). Knowing how evil this company and family are I wouldn't be surprised if they waited a while to launch the new pill format for patent reasons but I don't know this The cycle of 'less abusive' opiate marketing has been going on for a hundred years. They are all abusable and addictive. Even maintenance opiates like buprenorphine you would be dependent on and users will still combine for instance methadone and other pills to get high.