Pain Pill Giant Purdue to Stop Promotion of Opioids to Doctors
- Company says it plans to cut more than half of U.S. salesforce
- Purdue developed many modern pharmaceutical sales tactics
Bottles of Purdue Pharma LP OxyContin medication.
Photographer: George Frey/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
Pain-pill giant Purdue Pharma LP will stop promoting its opioid drugs to doctors, a retreat after years of criticism that the company’s aggressive sales efforts helped lay the foundation of the U.S. addiction crisis.
The company told employees this week that it would cut its sales force by more than half, to 200 workers. It plans to send a letter Monday to doctors saying that its salespeople will no longer come to their clinics to talk about the company’s pain products.