Pandora's Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong

by Paul A. Offit

In the early 1950s, oxycodone made its American debut. Initial preparations were combined with a variety of other drugs. For example, there was Percodan, a combination of oxycodone and aspirin; Combunox, a combination of oxycodone and ibuprofen, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory; and Percocet, a combination of oxycodone and acetaminophen (Tylenol). But the single most powerful, and eventually most addictive and most abused preparation, was OxyContin, pure oxycodone uncut by other drugs. OxyContin’s manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, marketed the drug as a first-line agent for arthritis. In OxyContin, Purdue Pharma had struck gold—the drug would eventually account for more than 80 percent of its business. Later, Purdue combined OxyContin with an acrylic that allowed for a slower, timed release of the drug, eliminating its need to be taken several times a day. Addicts soon found that by chewing the tablet or crushing it, they could bypass the timed-release mechanism and enjoy the immediate rush of as much as 160 milligrams of oxycodone, logarithmically greater than any other product on the market. Now addicts had the capacity to ingest a potentially lethal dose of the drug. (On a weight-by-weight basis oxycodone is actually more powerful than morphine.)