Company that made OxyContin says it has suspended active marketing of its opioids in Canada

Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, says it has stopped actively promoting its prescription opioids in Canada, according to a letter the company's Canadian branch addressedto the federal minister of health.

The letter, dated June 27, was in response to a call to action from Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor forpharmaceutical companies to restrict the marketing of opioidsas Canada grapples with the deaths of thousands of people due to drug overdosesand many more struggling with addiction.

Purdue Pharma(Canada) says thatas of June 20, it had "suspended all promotional and advertising activities relating to our prescription opioids, pending the outcome of your consultation and the implementation of new regulations."

Purdue stopped manufacturing OxyContin in 2012 and replaced itwith a differentformulation, called OxyNeo.

Health Canada has announced its intent to restrict the marketing and advertising of opioidsand hasasked for public comments, including from health-care providers and from opioid manufacturers, on "whether and how to proceed."

But the pharmaceutical company said it would still discuss its opioidswith health-care professionals "reactively" by having staff in its medical affairs departmentdeal with "requests for information."

Dr. NavPersaud, a family doctor and researcher at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, said that kind of wording makes it unclear whether Purdue Pharmawill actually make any significant changes to its marketing practices to health-care providers. He called the letter "mostly a distraction" from the company's role in the opioidcrisis.

Purdue Pharma'smarketing of OxyContinto doctors and medical students as a safe andeffective way to manage chronic pain has been widely blamed for it being overprescribed and ultimately leading to the opioidcrisis.

In the U.S.,the companyacknowledged in 2007that its promotions exaggerated the drug's safety and minimized the risks of addiction.It agreed to pay more than $600 million US in penalties.

Purdue has made no such admission of responsibility in this country, nor has the Canadian government pursued criminal prosecution.

In its letter to the health minister, the company said it had behaved legally in Canada.

"Purdue Pharma(Canada) has always marketed its products in line with the Health Canada approved product monograph and in compliance with all relevant rules, regulations and codes, including the Food and Drugs Act and the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board (PAAB) Code," the letter says.

Class-action lawsuit

The company also said its medicationshad an important role to play in helping Canadians to manage pain and emphasized its work in making "tamper-resistant" and "abuse-deterrent" formulations of the drugs, including OxyNeo which, like OxyContin, is made of the opioidoxycodone.

"It's concerning [that] even where they are claiming to be attempting to help with the problem, they continue to advance this narrative that it's really about abuse," Persaud said. "They don't mention anything about the fact that they spread misinformation and based on that misinformation, people who should not have been exposed to opioidswere exposed."

Last February, Purdue announced it would stop marketing opioid drugs to physicians in the U.S. and that it had reduced its sales staff by more than half. The company is facing many lawsuits in the U.S., and changing its marketing practices has been a key demand.

In Canada, the company settled a class-action lawsuit for $20 million, but a judge in Saskatchewan refused to approve the settlement in March, saying he was "not yet satisfied" that the agreement was in the best interest of hundreds of plaintiffs who had become addicted to OxyContin. Under the terms of the settlement, Purdue made no admission of liability.

Purdue Pharmais trying to appeal that judge's decision so that the settlement can proceed. The company is scheduled to make a case for that appeal in Regina on Aug. 22.