Purdue Pharma`s sales pitch downplayed risks of opioid addiction
(WorldNews Health)

WASHINGTON -Two decades ago, Purdue Pharma produced thousands of brochures and videos that urged patients with chronic pain to ask their physicians for opioids such as OxyContin, arguing that concerns over addiction and other dangers from the drugs were overblown, company records reveal. Kaiser Health News earlier this year posted a cache of Purdue marketing documents that show how the pharmaceutical company sought to boost sales of the prescription painkiller, starting in the mid-1990s. Purdue turned the records over to the Florida attorney general`s office in 2002 during its investigation of the company. Additional Purdue documents from the Florida investigation detail how the company...