Purdue strongly discouraged the practice: Purdue's medical director Robert Reder wrote to one doctor in 1995 that "OxyContin has been developed for dosing...I request that you not use a [8-hourly dosing regimen." Purdue repeatedly released memos to its sales representatives ordering them to remind doctors not to deviate from a 12-hour dosing schedule. One such memo read, "There is no Q8 dosing with OxyContin... dosing needs to be nipped in the bud. NOW!!" The journalists who covered the investigation argue that Purdue Pharma has insisted on a 12-hour duration of action for nearly all patients, despite evidence to the contrary, in order to protect the reputation of OxyContin as a 12-hour drug and the willingness of health insurance and managed care companies to cover OxyContin despite its high cost relative to generic opiates such as morphine.