COMPANY PROPOSES CHEMICAL SAFEGUARD

The maker of the widely abused narcotic painkiller OxyContin knew that
other companies had used a chemical safeguard to reduce misuse of
their products but decided not to take similar steps before marketing
the drug, company officials say.

Executives of the manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, said in statements over
the weekend that they had not initially considered adding a so-called
narcotic antagonist to OxyContin because they did not expect that
abusers would crush the drug and then inject or snort it.

Over the past two years, OxyContin has been cited as a factor in more
than 100 overdose deaths nationwide, and people desperate for the drug
have been involved in pharmacy robberies and other crimes.

Last week, Purdue Pharma said that it was working to develop a
painkiller like OxyContin that would also contain a narcotic
antagonist. Such compounds do not affect a drug if it is taken
normally. But if an abuser crushes a drug tablet and injects or snorts
the powder an antagonist will block its opiate effect and reduce its
appeal.

The company, based in Stamford, Conn., said it would probably take
three to five years to develop and test the new drug. Antagonists work
by blocking receptors in the brain that are also used by opiates.

In interviews last week, some drug-abuse experts were critical of
Purdue, saying that the company could have initiated such action
earlier and that its timetable would do little to address OxyContin
abuse right away.

"This should have dawned on them before," said Terry Woodworth, the
deputy director of the division of diversion control at the Drug
Enforcement Administration.

Purdue officials said they had hoped to avert OxyContin misuse by
encapsulating its active narcotic, a compound called oxycodone, in a
time-released formula. The company believed that by doing so it would
make the drug less appealing to abusers who want a quick high.

But even before OxyContin was first sold in 1995, some companies found
that some of their products had become popular with drug abusers, and
a few manufacturers moved to reformulate those products with
antagonists.

In 1983, Winthrop Laboratories, which was then a subsidiary of
Sterling Drugs, added naloxone, an antagonist, to Talwin, one of its
pain relievers. Some people were abusing Talwin by crushing the drug,
adding an antihistamine and injecting the mixture.

"This seemed to help," said Dr. Sharon Jacobs, the senior medical
director at Sanofi-Synthelabo, which acquired Sterling. "It decreased
the abuse."

Another manufacturer, Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals, which makes
buprenorphine, another painkiller, added naloxone when the drug was
abused in New Zealand in the 1980s, said Charles O'Keeffe, the
president of the company. As with Talwin, abuse of the compound
quickly dropped.

Purdue officials said that naloxone was not a suitable antagonist for
the active narcotic in OxyContin. Purdue has decided to use a
different but related substance called naltrexone.

Purdue officials called their timetable aggressive, given the newness
of combining naltrexone and a narcotic in the same tablet.

"We will have to enroll approximately 2,000 pain patients in a series
of clinical trials, which will take years," the company said.