NY Times
In Guilty Plea, OxyContin Maker to Pay $600 Million
OxyContin is a powerful, long-acting narcotic that provides relief of serious pain for up to 12 hours. Initially, Purdue Pharma contended that OxyContin, because of its time-release formulation, posed a lower threat of abuse and addiction to patients than traditional, shorter-acting painkillers like Percocet or Vicodin.
That claim became the lynchpin of the most aggressive marketing campaign ever undertaken by a pharmaceutical company for such a drug. Just a few years after the drug’s introduction in 1996, annual sales reached $1 billion. Purdue Pharma heavily promoted OxyContin to doctors like general practitioners who had little training in the treatment of serious pain or in recognizing signs of drug abuse in patients.
But both experienced drug abusers and novices, including teenagers, soon discovered that chewing an OxyContin tablet or crushing one and then snorting the powder or injecting it with a needle produced a high as powerful as heroin. By 2000, several parts of the United States, particularly rural areas, began to seeing skyrocketing rates of addiction and crime related to the drug’s use.
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Federal officials said that internal Purdue Pharma documents show that company officials recognized even before the drug was marketed that they would face stiff resistance from doctors concerned about the potential of a high-powered narcotic like OxyContin to be abused by patients or cause addiction.
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Between 1995 and 2001, OxyContin produced $2.8 billion in revenue for Purdue Pharma, a closely held company that is based in Stamford, Conn. At one point, it accounted for 90 percent of the company’s sales.
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Those executives are Michael Friedman, the company’s president, who agreed to pay $19 million in fines; Howard Udell, its top lawyer, who agreed to pay $8 million; and Dr. Paul Goldenheim, its former medical director, who agreed to pay $7.5 million.
Unless all profits plus interest made from Oxycontin during the years it was “mislabeled” are taken we are saying that contrary to that popular slogan, crime does pay. And pays quite will. Perhaps those involved should also serve some of the jail time of the people they intentionally or negligently sought to addict. Say 1% of the sentence from each Oxycontin related offense. Under the idea they induced these crimes through their illegal promotion of Oxycontin?
Yay! It’s about time that big pharm has to pay! It’s a start. Oxycontin is the DEVIL…my husband’s heroin addiction grew out of an oxy problem.