Rival Opioid Makers Used the OxyContin Panic to Cash In

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Painkillers such as fentanyl were marketed as safer than the Purdue Pharma drug, even as they left their own trail of overdose deaths.

Published Jul. 30 2018 4:44AM EDT

180729-KHN-rival-opiod-makers-hero_oyovlj — Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast

By Fred Schulte. This article originally appeared on Kaiser Health News.

As Purdue Pharma faced mounting criticism over deaths linked to OxyContin, rival drugmakers saw a chance to boost sales by stepping up marketing of similarly dangerous painkillers, such as fentanyl, morphine and methadone, Purdue internal documents reveal.

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Rival Opioid Makers Used the OxyContin Panic to Cash In

Painkillers such as fentanyl were marketed as safer than the Purdue Pharma drug, even as they left their own trail of overdose deaths.

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