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# Purdue Promoted ‘Pseudoaddiction’ to Defend Oxycontin: CBS
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/purdue-promoted-pseudoaddiction-to-defend-oxycontin-cbs/
- Published: 2018-06-21T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T00:15:00.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5141749

In a disclosure reminiscent of others over decades involving pharmaceutical marketing abuses of FDA-approved drugs with devastating side effects and lax FDA labeling enforcement, CBS Evening News 6/21 reported a former Purdue Pharma sales person’s allegation of scientifically unsubstantiated “pseudoaddiction” claims about the company’s blockbuster opioid Oxycontin. This, [she told CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/video/purdue-pharma-misrepresented-impact-of-oxycontin-former-sales-rep-says/?ref=fdaweb.com), was the company’s instruction to its field force in marketing Oxycontin’s claimed superiority over competing opioids – claims that Oxycontin did not cause as much addiction as others were based on “pseudo addiction” anecdotal evidence not on the product’s FDA-approved labeling.

 In a 2016 case, [Novartis reportedly settled](https://www.fdaweb.com/novartis-settles-elidel-false-claims-case/) a $35 million allegation that it made false claims for the excema crème Elidel. Three months earlier, Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Acclarent [settled for $18 million](https://www.fdaweb.com/acclarent-agrees-to-pay-18-million-in-off-label-device-settlement/) a case against its promotion pf a sinus opening device for a use not approved by FDA. Way back in 2010, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical [agreed to pay $81 million to settle](http://www.fdaweb.com/login.php?sa=v&aid=D5114998&searchWords=off-label%20claims&cate=S&stid=%241%24VG0.4P3.%24S0x3fHObg9l4ykeN35bDn.) criminal liability and other charges over its off-label promotion of the epilepsy drug Topamax. And the list goes on into history. The penalties are easily written off as an ordinary cost of business.

In her CBS News interview, the former Purdue sales person, **Carol Penera**, described her decision to join the company as “the worst career decision of my life.” She said the company’s tactics with Oxycontin, which ended in 2001, were “sell as much as you can” despite a lack of clinical data to show prescribers that backed up its claims of lower addictiveness than other opioids and “pseudoaddiction.” The network said Purdue, which has reportedly laid off its entire sales team and is being sued by 24 states, issued a statement saying it is “confident its sales were consistent with the FDA-approved label.”