Purdue Ends Opioid Marketing to Doctors

Purdue Pharmaceuticals announced that it will no longer promote its opioid products to doctors and will cut its sales force by more than half.

Instead of deploying salespeople to doctors’ offices, the company will direct prescribers to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention materials and the office of the U.S. Surgeon General.  Any further questions or requests for information about opioid products will be handled through the company’s medical affairs department, the company said.

The remaining 200 sales representatives will focus on Symproic and other potential non-opioid products.

Purdue’s top-selling drug, Oxycontin, earned $1.8 billion in 2017.