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OxyContin was promoted aggressively to doctors, records show
By Fred Schulte
and Nancy McVicar Staff Writers
February 21, 2003
The maker of OxyContin has spent nearly $150 million in recent years persuading doctors to prescribe the painkiller for a growing list of ailments, promoting it aggressively even as the death toll from abuse soared.
Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist released seven years of marketing plans on Thursday after the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Orlando Sentinel won a lawsuit seeking to make them public. Purdue Pharma submitted the plans as part of an investigation into the marketing tactics, an inquiry that ended last year.
The records give little indication marketers worried about safety while promoting the drug first for cancer pain and then for a wide range of ailments from low back pain to arthritis.
"We did not foresee, we did not anticipate, nor did the DEA or any drug enforcement agency see this coming. It came out of nowhere," said Robin Hogen, vice president for public affairs for the company, based in Stamford, Conn.
Hogen also defended the marketing campaign for OxyContin, a heroin-like painkiller.
"Aggressive doesn't mean improper," Hogen said. "We think our marketing tactics are comparable to other pharmaceutical companies. We're proud of the fact that we hire sales people who are passionate about their work, which is to provide pain relief for patients who have untreated pain."
Hogen said in the past two years the company has spent $200 million to help stem abuse of the drug.
The plans show, however, that as early as 1996 the company expected to build its fortune on OxyContin.
"Purdue Pharma's corporate goal is to be one of the Top 10 pharmaceutical companies by 2010, reads the company's initial marketing plan for OxyContin. "That goal can be measured both in terms of sales and image or professional standing within the industry or community."
The company has spent roughly $20 million each year on programs to persuade doctors to prescribe the drug -- buying ads in medical journals, providing Cross pens to high-volume prescribers, and giving their secretaries telephone message pads with OxyContin's name prominently displayed.
Last year Purdue Pharma budgeted more than $2.7 million for advertising OxyContin in medical journals while another $2 million was funneled to an educational program called Partners Against Pain.
In 1996, the first year after the Food and Drug Administration approved OxyContin, the company spent $44 million on marketing, while forecasting sales at just $25 million.
By 1998, almost three of four OxyContin prescriptions were being written for people with diseases other than cancer, the plans show. Last year, sales of OxyContin reached $1.2 billion.
The plans contained many gaps. For example, the first 40 pages of the 2002 marketing plan are missing. Other passages were deleted before the records were turned over to the state.
Assistant Attorney General Jody Collins said she thought Purdue's marketing strategies didn't violate Florida laws prohibiting false or misleading advertising.
"I don't believe there was a clear misrepresentation," she said. "It was not black or white."
Critics of the drug and Purdue Pharma, however, said they were disturbed to hear that the company's marketers gave scant attention to the drug's potential dangers.
"This is the smoking gun," said Marianne Skolek, of Whitehouse Station, N.J, whose daughter, Jill, died last year at age 29 after taking OxyContin. "It's all about their profits. I hold them accountable for Jill's death."
Chelly Griffith, of Davenport, Iowa, who struggled to wean herself off the drug after taking it for four years for back pain, said the company should have alerted doctors and patients to the dangers of addiction.
"I was told by my doctor that this drug was safe. My life went to hell," she said. "They knew the dangers of addiction from this drug."
At times the marketing reports blame media attention about the drug's abuse for costing the company sales.
The 2002 marketing report said media reports have "provided state Medicaid plans and some HMOs, concerned about the effect the product is having on their budget, an excuse to look for ways to limit the prescribing of OxyContin tablets."
In May, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel confirmed more than 400 people in a seven-county area of southeast Florida had died from prescription drug overdoses in two years, including 224 from oxycodone, the main ingredient in OxyContin.
In November, Purdue Pharma agreed to pay Florida $2 million to help set up a computer databank that would track abuse of prescription narcotics. That agreement ended the state's investigation into the company's marketing practices.
The plans became public at a time when the company is facing increased scrutiny from federal regulators.
Last month, the FDA issued a stern warning ordering the company to pull advertising from the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The ads "grossly overstate" the safety of OxyContin by failing to point out "serious, potentially fatal risks" associated with its use, according to the FDA warning letter.
Fred Schulte can be reached at [email protected] or 954-356-4591. Nancy McVicar can be reached at [email protected] or 954-356-4593. |