Yes, OxyContin is still on the market in the United States. The brand-name drug, an extended-release form of oxycodone, remains FDA-approved and actively manufactured, though under far tighter restrictions than when it first launched in 1995. The company behind it, Purdue Pharma, underwent a dramatic transformation through bankruptcy, but production continues under a restructured entity.
What Changed With Purdue Pharma
Purdue Pharma, the original manufacturer, no longer exists in its previous form. After years of lawsuits over its role in the opioid crisis, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a global resolution requiring Purdue to dissolve and re-emerge from bankruptcy as a public benefit company. This new entity is owned by a trust designed to serve the public interest. It still manufactures and sells OxyContin, but its profits are directed toward state and local opioid abatement programs. The company is also expected to donate or heavily discount overdose rescue drugs and medications used to treat opioid addiction.
So while the corporate name and structure changed, the pill itself never left pharmacy shelves.
The Reformulated Version
The OxyContin sold today is not the same product that fueled the opioid epidemic in the early 2000s. In 2010, the FDA approved a reformulated version designed to be harder to abuse. The original tablets could be crushed into powder for snorting or dissolved for injection, both of which delivered the full dose at once and produced an intense high. The current formulation resists crushing and turns into a thick gel when mixed with water, making those routes of abuse more difficult.
The FDA took the additional step of refusing to approve generic versions of the original formulation, concluding that its risks outweighed its benefits. This effectively removed the easier-to-abuse version from the supply chain entirely.
Available Strengths and Prescribing Rules
OxyContin is currently sold in seven tablet strengths: 10 mg, 15 mg, 20 mg, 30 mg, 40 mg, 60 mg, and 80 mg. In 2015, the FDA also approved its use for certain pediatric patients with severe pain requiring around-the-clock opioid treatment when other options are inadequate.
As a Schedule II controlled substance, OxyContin requires a written prescription (no phone-in refills in most cases), and the DEA sets annual production limits on how much oxycodone can be manufactured nationwide. For 2026, the DEA authorized roughly 50.2 million grams of oxycodone for sale, a figure the agency adjusts each year based on legitimate medical need and abuse trends.
The FDA also maintains a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) covering all opioid painkillers, including OxyContin. Under this program, drug manufacturers fund continuing education courses for doctors, nurses, and pharmacists on safe prescribing and patient monitoring. A 2024 update to the REMS added a new requirement: manufacturers must provide prepaid mail-back envelopes to pharmacies so patients can safely dispose of unused pills at home.
How Prescribing Guidelines Have Shifted
OxyContin is prescribed far more cautiously now than it was two decades ago. The CDC’s 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids recommends that doctors start any opioid therapy with immediate-release formulations, not extended-release products like OxyContin. Extended-release opioids should be reserved for severe, continuous pain, and the FDA has noted that some of these medications should only be considered for patients who have already been taking immediate-release opioids daily for at least a week.
The guidelines specifically state that extended-release opioids should not be used for acute pain, should not be the first opioid a patient tries for chronic pain, and should never be prescribed on an as-needed basis. This represents a significant narrowing from the broad chronic pain marketing that Purdue Pharma originally used to promote the drug.
Generic Extended-Release Oxycodone
The generic landscape for OxyContin has been unusual. When the FDA blocked generics of the original crushable formulation in the early 2010s, it effectively gave the reformulated brand-name product temporary market exclusivity. Generic versions of extended-release oxycodone have since reached the market, giving patients and insurers lower-cost alternatives to the OxyContin brand name. Whether a patient receives brand-name OxyContin or a generic equivalent typically depends on their insurance formulary and pharmacy stocking decisions.
Why It’s Still Available
Given OxyContin’s central role in the opioid crisis, it’s reasonable to wonder why regulators haven’t pulled it entirely. The short answer is that extended-release oxycodone fills a real clinical need for patients with severe, ongoing pain, particularly those with cancer or after major surgery, who need consistent round-the-clock relief. Removing the drug would push those patients toward alternatives that may carry their own risks.
The regulatory strategy has instead focused on making the drug harder to abuse, restricting who it’s prescribed to, educating prescribers, and ensuring that the company profiting from its sale directs revenue toward repairing the damage opioids have caused. OxyContin remains legal, available, and actively produced, but the ecosystem around it looks nothing like the one that existed when the crisis began.