The Importance of Working the Medical Industrial Complex

You write that Purdue spent $500 million from 1996 to 2001 alone on pharmaceutical detailing, which is when pharmaceutical companies send sales reps directly to doctors' offices. One of the most effective ways that opioids were sold was through working the medical, industrial complex, so to speak. "When they get subverted to becoming marketers of opioids, that really moves pills probably more so than advertisements," he says.