Oxycodone, the painkiller that triggered an avalanche of lawsuits in the United States and is sold in Argentina

The Purdue Pharma laboratory, which produces the pain reliever OxyContin (oxycodone), faces
multi-million dollar lawsuits from 37 states and 1,600 US municipalities to consider it as the precursor to the opiate crisis in that country. Today, Purdue Pharma has agreed in an extrajudicial way to compensate the state of Oklahoma for $ 270 million.

Oxycodone is a stronger badgesic than morphine. "It is synthesized from thebaine, a substance found in opium, that is to say that it is a heroin family" BBC World Professor Professor Brandon Marshall, professor of epidemiology at Brown University in Rhode Island, told BBC World. UU.).

Its consumption in this country has generated an overdose epidemic. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that in 2017, just over a third of people who died as a result of opiate use were consuming it to relieve pain.

The product of Purdue Pharma has been available since 1996. Over the last 20 years, the revenue to obtain it has increased sixfold in this country. Specifically, the Sackler family members are accused of misleading doctors and patients and putting into practice sales and marketing techniques that have led to over-prescription of this drug to many patients who Did not have what to consume

In 2007, US courts convicted Purdue Pharma of misleading advertising for its products, failing to inform the public of the risk of addiction that could be caused by the use of OxyContin. The fine was $ 634.5 million.

Argentina imports the product from the United States since 2018, through the laboratory of this country, Mundipharma Pharmaceuticals SRL, in accordance with a marketing authorization issued by the Food and Drug Administration (Anmat) . Previously, he had transferred his representation in the country to several local laboratories.

THE NACION tried without success to communicate with a spokesperson of the company. In dialogue with other media, the general manager of the company, Martín Gravano, denied the existence of notifications of problems related to the use of the product locally.

According to specialists explained to LA NACION, this derivative of morphine, like any opioid, can have adverse effects, especially a dependence. It is used to relieve severe and chronic pain. In Argentina, it is sold on prescription.