Having developed this drug in England, under Mortimer, the Sacklers’ next step would be to market it in Raymond’s domain, the United States. But this raised an interesting dilemma. The Sacklers were committed to the narrative that MS Contin was new, even revolutionary. But the FDA’s procedures for securing approval of any new drug required a lengthy and cumbersome regulatory application process. What if the company asserted that this wasn’t actually a new drug at all? The only active ingredient was morphine, an old and familiar drug that had long since been approved. Really, it was just the
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