Purdue Pharma Launches Aggressive OxyContin Marketing Campaign Based on False Claims

Purdue Pharma launched the most aggressive marketing campaign ever undertaken for a narcotic drug, introducing OxyContin with false claims about addiction risk. At the 1996 launch party, Dr. Richard Sackler predicted the debut would “be followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition.”

Marketing Scale and Tactics

The company spent approximately six to 12 times more on promotional efforts during OxyContin’s first six years than it had spent on its older product, MS Contin. Sales exploded from $48 million in 1996 to nearly $1.1 billion in 2000, driven by the most aggressive marketing of a narcotic drug ever undertaken by a pharmaceutical producer.

From 1996 to 2001, Purdue conducted more than 40 national pain-management and speaker-training conferences at resorts in Florida, Arizona, and California, where over 5,000 physicians, pharmacists, and nurses attended all-expenses-paid symposia. The company funded more than 20,000 pain-related educational programs through direct sponsorship or financial grants, systematically targeting medical professionals with misleading claims.

False Claims and Sales Pressure

Purdue’s marketing centered on the scientifically unsubstantiated FDA-approved claim that OxyContin’s delayed absorption “is believed to reduce the abuse liability of a drug.” Internal sales memos from February 2000 read “Dedicate 70% of your time selling Oxycontin!!!!!!!!!!!” and “We are selling Oxycontin 70% of the time!!!!” The number of sales representatives available for OxyContin promotion increased 73 percent in the seven years after the drug was released.

Captured Medical Profession

Physicians who attended dinner programs or weekend meetings wrote more than double the number of new prescriptions for OxyContin compared to control groups. Purdue’s budget for food bought for physicians who prescribe opioids reached nine million dollars annually, creating systematic capture of medical decision-making.

Accountability Failure Pattern

On May 10, 2007, Purdue Frederick Company Inc pleaded guilty to criminal charges of misbranding OxyContin by claiming it was less addictive than other opioids and paid $634 million in fines—but this came 11 years after the marketing campaign began, after hundreds of thousands of Americans had become addicted. No executives received jail time, establishing the pattern of corporate impunity that would define the opioid crisis response.

This marketing campaign, built on regulatory capture and false safety claims, directly contributed to the deaths of over 500,000 Americans between 1996 and 2020.