A three-part investigation of the nation’s bestselling painkiller, OxyContin, revealed how decisions by manufacturer Purdue Pharma, including the cover-up of a fundamental flaw in the drug’s duration, contributed to the nation’s ongoing opioid epidemic.
The damage wrought by the opioid epidemic has been well-documented over the last two decades, and OxyContin, the drug that started the crisis, was the subject of particularly intense media coverage in the early 2000s. Though the headlines faded, the deadly problems associated with the drug continued. So The Times decided to dig deeper into OxyContin.
It was a challenging assignment. Purdue is a privately held corporation, controlled by a family that eschews media coverage and requires employees to sign confidentiality agreements as a condition of employment. When questions about OxyContin had surfaced in the past in lawsuits by patients and competitors, the company persuaded judges to seal company documents and sworn testimony of executives.
The Times nevertheless obtained thousands of pages of confidential Purdue records spanning more than three decades and covering the drug’s development and marketing.
In the end, the project yielded a number of stunning findings. First, the drug billed as a 12-hour painkiller wears off hours early for many patients, raising their risk of addiction, overdose and death. Purdue has known about the problem for decades, but has held fast to the claim of 12-hour relief, in part to protect its revenue.
The second revelation was that Purdue had highly detailed evidence of criminal trafficking of OxyContin around the country, but in many cases, failed to share the information with law enforcement or cut off the supply of pills. Using a Los Angeles drug ring that sent a million pills onto the black market as a case study, The Times showed how an internal Purdue security team gathered substantial evidence that L.A. doctors and pharmacists were colluding with drug dealers, but did not go to authorities until years after the ring was out of business.
The third revelation was Purdue’s owners plan for OxyContin in the developing world. As prescriptions for OxyContin plummet, the Sackler family, which owns Purdue, is seeking new customers in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and other areas ill-prepared to handle opioid abuse and addiction. In this global drive, the Sacklers’ international companies are using some of the same controversial marketing tactics, including downplaying OxyContin’s risk of addiction.
After publication of the first story, Purdue issued a news release and launched a Twitter campaign criticizing the story. The Times published the company’s statement as well as a point-by-point response defending the story. The company did not issue responses to the subsequent stories. It has not asked for any corrections, and the paper didn’t publish any.