Pubdate: Thu, 03 Jan 2002
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Website: http://www.kentuckyconnect.com/heraldleader/
Address: 100 Midland Avenue, Lexington, Ky. 40508
Email:  2002 Lexington Herald-Leader
Fax: 606-255-7236
Author: Bill Estep
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?186

OXYCONTIN MAKER WINS ROUND IN COURT

Judge Rejects KY. Plaintiffs' Challenge To Marketing

A federal judge in Kentucky has refused to limit marketing of the 
controversial and much-abused prescription painkiller OxyContin.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer B. Coffman ruled last week that a group of 
Kentuckians suing the maker of the drug, Purdue Pharma L.P. of Stamford, 
Conn., did not prove the need for a preliminary injunction barring 
promotional practices by the company.

``The plaintiffs have failed to produce any evidence showing that the 
defendants' marketing, promotional, or distribution practices have ever 
caused even one tablet of OxyContin to be inappropriately prescribed or 
diverted'' for illegal use, Coffman said in her Dec. 27 order.

The ruling came in the first lawsuit filed in Kentucky over OxyContin. 
There are at least a dozen similar suits pending in Kentucky and several 
other states.

The ruling does not end the lawsuit, in which five living plaintiffs -- and 
the estates of two it claims died of OxyContin overdoses -- allege that 
aggressive, deceptive marketing and overprescription of the drug led to 
serious problems with addiction, crime and overdose deaths in southeastern 
Kentucky. They are seeking unspecified damages.

The plaintiffs asked Coffman to issue an injunction that would force Purdue 
Pharma to make changes in an Internet site it uses to promote OxyContin. 
For instance, the Web site had information related to an advertisement for 
OxyContin that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered the company to 
stop using in a medical journal, the motion said. The injunction also would 
have barred the company from giving doctors or pharmacies more than one 
month's supply of OxyContin per prescription, and from giving the drug to 
anyone who had not signed a patient-doctor contract. The suit seeks to 
develop such a contract as a way to make sure people know the risks of the 
drug.

Purdue Pharma opposed the request for the injunction.

The company has argued that its marketing has been legal and responsible. 
Improper, illegal diversion is to blame for problems with abuse of the drug 
in Kentucky and elsewhere, the company has said.

Coffman said the plaintiffs had failed to show they would be harmed or 
misled if Purdue Pharma continued the practices they were seeking to stop.

Peter Perlman of Lexington, one of the attorneys for the people suing 
Purdue Pharma, said they felt they had a duty to seek an injunction aimed 
at curbing improper marketing while the suit was pending. Coffman's ruling 
does not address the merits of the claims in the lawsuit, he said. It was 
filed in June.

OxyContin has been a boon to some chronic pain sufferers, but the powerful 
painkiller also became one of the most abused drugs in Eastern Kentucky and 
some other areas the last two years, playing a role in thefts and scores of 
overdose deaths.

Congress has ordered an investigation of how the company marketed the 
billion-dollar seller.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart