(20 Nov 2019) OxyContin is a dying business in the United States. Purdue Pharma is collapsing under an avalanche of lawsuits that accuse the company of using false claims to push its blockbuster painkiller in the US, profiting as an unsuspecting nation slipped into a devastating drug crisis. Meanwhile, another company owned by the Sackler family in China has been promoting OxyContin with the same tactics Purdue was forced to abandon in the US as opioid overdose deaths soared, according to interviews with four current and former employees and more than 3,300 pages of training and marketing material obtained by the Associated Press.
Representatives from the Sacklers' Chinese affiliate, Mundipharma, tell doctors that time-release painkillers like OxyContin are less addictive than other opioids—the same pitch Purdue admitted was false in US court more than a decade ago.
Mundipharma has pushed ever larger doses of opioids, even as it became clear that higher doses present higher risks, and represented the drug as safe for chronic pain, according the interviews and documents.
Thousands of lawsuits in the United States against Purdue say claims like these wrongly convinced a generation of doctors that opioids were safer and less addictive than everyone had long thought, contributing to the deaths of more than 400,000 Americans to opioid overdoses and helping drive millions more into addiction.
Purdue, which declared bankruptcy in September, has denied those allegations.
As the backlash against opioids in the US grew, sales fell and the Sacklers trained their sights on the global market.
In China, Mundipharma managers tried to boost profits by requiring sales representatives to copy patients' private medical records without consent, in apparent violation of Chinese law, current and former employees told Associated Press.
Former representatives also said they sometimes disguised themselves as medical staff, putting on white doctor's coats and lying about their identity to visit patients in the hospital.
As in the US, marketing materials in China made claims about OxyContin's safety and effectiveness based on company-funded studies and outdated data that has been debunked.
Mundipharma said it was taking immediate action to investigate the allegations uncovered by the AP.
In a statement, the company said it has rigorous policies in place "to ensure that our medicines are marketed responsibly and in accordance with China's strict regulatory framework governing analgesics."
Purdue said Mundipharma is an independent entity, operating in a different country, under different laws and regulations.
Representatives of the Sackler family did not respond to detailed requests for comment.
Today, Mundipharma is a bargaining chip in negotiations to settle sweeping US litigation.
The Sackler family agreed to cede ownership of Purdue but wants to keep Mundipharma for now to sell OxyContin abroad.
They have discussed eventually selling Mundipharma to fund the family's contribution to a settlement in the US.
Mundipharma has promoted OxyContin in questionable ways in other countries, including Italy and Australia.
But the company has particularly high hopes for China, where it has said it wants sales to surpass those in the US by 2025.
China today does not suffer from widespread abuse of opioid painkillers.
Strict rules mean OxyContin is not available at pharmacies and can only be prescribed by specially certified doctors.
Two said they also gave under-the-table gifts.
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