A major opioid manufacturer vows to stop marketing the drugs that are at the forefront a nationwide opioid addiction crisis. Purdue Pharma will no longer market opioids, including Oxycontin, to doctors and their patients.
Purdue was recently served with lawsuits linking the drug maker to the ongoing opioid crisis.
Lawmakers praised the drug manufacturer for its decision.
“The genie is out of the bottle. Millions of Americans are opioid addicted,” Dr. Andrew Kolodny, the director of opioid policy research at Brandeis University, told the NY Daily News on Monday.
“We need other drug companies, other top manufacturers to do the same thing.”
Purdue cut its sales staff by half, the other remaining 200 staffers will focus on sales of non-opioid drugs to doctors and hospitals.
“This recognition by Purdue is a step in the right direction, however, it only represents a small fraction of the problem,” O’Grady said. “The focus still seems to be trying to stop this epidemic by increasing legal consequences, rather than treating it as an illness.”
Opioid addiction is the driving force behind the nation’s epidemic of drug overdose deaths.
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