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THE PILL THEY SAID WASN'T ADDICTIVE
In 1996, A Pharmaceutical Company
Told America's Doctors That Their New Painkiller Was Different
That The Risk Of Addiction Was Less Than One Percent
That This One Was Safe…
Yet
Four Hundred Thousand People Are Dead
THIS NEWSLETTER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. NOTHING IN THIS CONTENT CONSTITUTES MEDICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, OR PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. ALWAYS CONSULT A QUALIFIED HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY HEALTH RELATED DECISIONS.
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OKAY BACK FROM THE BOARDROOM 💼
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THE FAMILY BEHIND THE PILL 🏢
Purdue Pharma Was A Private Company Controlled By The Sackler Family
In 1996 They Launched OxyContin
A Reformulated Version Of Oxycodone With An Extended Release Mechanism
The Claim Was That The Slow Release Of The Drug Reduced Its Abuse Potential
That Patients Could Take It For Chronic Pain Without The Dependency Risk Of Shorter Acting Opioids
The FDA Approved It
The Marketing Budget That Followed Was Unlike Anything The Pain Management Industry Had Seen Before
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THE CAMPAIGN 📊
Sales Representatives Were Given Detailed Scripts And Aggressive Quotas
Doctors Who Prescribed High Volumes Were Rewarded With Speaking Fees
Paid Trips, And Sponsored Meals
A Broader Campaign Pushed The Concept Of Pain As The Fifth Vital Sign
The Argument Was That Pain Was Being Undertreated Across American Medicine
That Doctors Who Did Not Prescribe Opioids Aggressively For Chronic Pain Were Failing Their Patients
Pain Clinics Opened Across The Country
Some Operated Legitimately
Others Became Known As Pill Mills
Prescriptions For OxyContin Went From Around 670,000 In 1997 To Over 6 Million By 2002
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THE LIE 💊
The Less Than One Percent Addiction Claim Did Not Come From A Clinical Trial
It Came From A Five Sentence Letter Published In The New England Journal Of Medicine In 1980
The Letter Described A Small
Short Term Observation Of Hospitalized Patients
It Was Not A Study Of Long Term Outpatient Opioid Use
It Was Not Designed To Answer The Question It Was Being Used To Answer
Purdue's Legal And Medical Teams Cited It Hundreds Of Times In Promotional Materials Anyway
The Extended Release Mechanism That Justified The Lower Risk Profile
Had Another Property Nobody Advertised
The Tablet Could Be Crushed
Crushing It Defeated The Entire Extended Release Design And Delivered The Full Dose At Once
Internal Purdue Documents Produced In Later Litigation
Showed That The Company Had Been Tracking Reports Of Abuse
Crushing, And Snorting As Early As 1997
One Year After Launch
They Kept Selling
THE PIPELINE 🔄
As Awareness Of The Crisis Grew
Prescribing Regulations Tightened
Doctors Became More Cautious
Pill Mills Were Raided And Shut Down
Patients Who Had Developed Physical Dependence Under A Doctor's Care Found Themselves Cut Off
Heroin Was Cheaper Than Diverted Pills
Easier To Find In Many Zip Codes
It Binds To The Same Receptor
The Transition Was Not A Moral Failure
It Was A Pharmacological One
A Body In Withdrawal Does Not Ask Where The Relief Comes From
By 2010 Studies Were Showing That Roughly
82% Of New Heroin Users In The United States Had Started With A Prescription Opioid
The Boardroom Decision Had A Street Level Consequence And That Consequence Had A Zip Code
THE NUMBERS 📉
More Than Four Hundred Thousand People Died
From Opioid Overdose Between 1999 And 2019
In 2020, Purdue Pharma Pleaded Guilty To Federal Criminal Charges Related To Its Marketing Practices
The Sackler Family Agreed To Pay Approximately
6 Billion Dollars In Settlements Across Multiple Cases
They Retained Most Of Their Fortune
Their Names Remain On Hospital Wings And University Buildings Across The Country
In The Years Of Litigation That Followed
No Individual Member Of The Sackler Family Served Prison Time
The Company That Helped Engineer
The Largest Pharmaceutical Public Health Crisis In American History
Filed For Bankruptcy
Restructured And In Several Jurisdictions Continued Operating Under New Branding
