SUPERMARKET CHAIN PULLING OXYCONTIN FROM SHELVES

QUINCY, Mass. (AP) _ The Stop & Shop supermarket chain will no longer stock
the painkiller Oxycontin because of an increasing number of robberies
involving the drug.

"Stop & Shop is committed to providing the needs of our customers, but not
at the expense of the safety of our customers and associates," the company
said in a press release. A spokeswoman declined to comment further.

Stop & Shop has 226 pharmacies and 322 stores in Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey and New York. The company said it
would advise customers who are taking the drug of the new policy, and would
continue to order Oxycontin from wholesalers for customers with
prescriptions, though the individual deliveries may take several days to
arrive.

Last month, Scarborough, Maine-based chain Hannaford Bros. Co. pulled
Oxycontin from its pharmacies after a man robbed one of its Shop 'n Save
stores of several tablets of OxyContin and Dilaudid, another addictive pain
reliever.

James Heins, a spokesman for Purdue Pharma, which manufactures Oxycontin,
said Stop & Shop and Hannaford Bros. are the only chains to implement such
a policy. He said Purdue Pharma hoped to meet with Stop & Shop officials to
negotiate a solution.

"We understand Stop & Shop's concerns about pharmacy and customer safety,"
Heins said. "But we're also very concerned about the well-being of patients
who need this medication for pain. It's a situation where criminal activity
is determining the medical care of patients with pain. We as a company are
not going to tolerate that."