Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, will cease promoting its opioid drugs to doctors and will be dramatically reducing its sales force.
The news, reported by Bloomberg on Friday, comes as the company has come under scrutiny for their promotion of the products, which some claim contributed to the opioid crisis.
Employees of the company were told that the sales force would be reduced by more than 50 percent and that next week doctors would be notified that salespeople would not be visiting clinics to discuss the products any longer.
“We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers,” the company said in a statement.
If doctors have questions, they will be directed to the company’s medical affairs department.
OxyContin is Purdue’s No.1 drug, although sales have decreased recently due to generics.
The company has recently become more vocal about combating the opioid addiction crisis as thousands of Americans die every year due to overdoses.
