When Purdue Pharma introduced the opioid painkiller OxyContin in 1995, the company came to the crowded pharmaceutical market armed with a unique advantage granted by the Food and Drug Administration. The company was allowed to claim that the drug _ which would become a leading player in the nation's tragedy of opioid addiction and overdose deaths _ was less susceptible to abuse and less likely to cause addiction than other opioids.
It was not true. Executives at Purdue Pharma and the members of the Sackler family who owned and controlled the company knew it was not true. The FDA, then headed by Dr. David Kessler, who was appointed by President George H. W. Bush and left in place by Bill Clinton, should have known, as well, and never should have allowed such a potent drug to be marketed with such a rosily dishonest campaign. But using an army of salesmen and women who wooed thousands of doctors with false talking points, fees, travel and meals, Purdue Pharma turned OxyContin into a cash machine that has generated more than $35 billion in sales.
The combination of pharmaceutical companies willing to do everything to increase sales, and a regulatory agency unwilling to stop them and protect the nation, has cropped up regularly.
