FDA Approves Purdue Pharma’s Overdose-Reversal Device

THE NERVE –

Aug. 7, 2024 – Purdue Pharma, the company best known for fueling the opioid crisis by misleadingly marketing the infamous painkiller OxyContin, received approval on Wednesday for a new auto-injector device used to reverse opioid overdoses. The Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Zurnai also underscores Purdue’s continued effort to play a role in the nationwide response to the opioid crisis.

Primarily, amid the overdose epidemic, Purdue is viewed as a national villain. Its questionable marketing tactics for OxyContin, in particular, are blamed for turbocharging, beginning in the late 1990s, a wave of opioid addiction. The company and its founders and owners, the Sackler family, have been the subject not only of countless lawsuits but also major books and TV shows.

Many corners of the addiction advocacy community view Purdue with immense suspicion, and resent the company’s attempts to play a role in addressing a crisis it helped create. In its statement, the company noted that it plans to sell Zurnai at cost, and that it also doesn’t turn a profit on its existing nalmefene drug, which is used in hospital settings.

“Zurnai can be an important new tool to save lives in critical moments,” Craig Landau, the company’s president, said in a statement. “We are committed to delivering solutions to help address the opioid overdose crisis and are working to provide Zurnai at no profit to the company.”