Drug marketing: OxyContin ads called misleading

Experts say the profession should be more cautious about accepting at face value what pharmaceutical companies say in their promotional material.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Feb. 16, 2004.

During its extensive marketing campaign for OxyContin, Purdue Pharma sent doctors promotional videos that minimized the drug's risks and made unsubstantiated claims, according to a new federal report.

The General Accounting Office report also said the Food and Drug Administration had sent two letters to Purdue Pharma addressing what the agency said were misleading advertisements in JAMA and American Medical News. And the Drug Enforcement Administration said the pain drug was promoted to doctors who may not have been adequately trained in pain management.

Some physicians say they were misled about OxyContin's risks. They said the drug's marketing campaign and its fallout should serve as a warning to physicians to be more critical of promotional materials and to be sure to seek out other resources for reliable information on a drug's risks and benefits to patients.

"Physicians were duped. Purdue misled people either directly or indirectly, and they were called to task by several agencies," said Steven Blum, MD, director of the North Shore Pain Center in Skokie, Ill. "The abuse of [OxyContin] was never addressed."

But some medical leaders said physicians bear some responsibility if they accept a drug company's promotional material without verifying it with other resources.

"For anyone to listen to one source, that's just a big potential for trouble, whether it's for OxyContin or an antibiotic," said Michael Fleming, MD, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.