EFFORT TO CUT A PAINKILLER'S USE

WASHINGTON, July 25 (AP) -- The government and the maker of the painkiller
OxyContin sought today to stem illegal illegal use of the drug by urging
doctors to prescribe it only for patients with serious pain.

OxyContin is a long-lasting version of oxycodone, a narcotic considered
important therapy for many patients suffering long-term, moderate-to-severe
pain from cancer or other illnesses, the Food and Drug Administration
emphasized.

When swallowed whole, the tablet provides 12 hours of pain relief. But if
chewed, snorted or injected, OxyContin produces a quick and potentially
lethal high. It has been linked to more than 100 deaths.

OxyContin will now bear the drug agency's strongest type of warning, a
black box calling OxyContin potentially addictive as morphine and
explaining that chewing, snorting or injecting it can kill, said Dr.
Cynthia McCormick, the agency's chief of addictive products.

The drug is not for mild pain or for temporary pain, like that after dental
or surgical procedures.

The drug's maker, Purdue Pharma, a privately held company in Stamford,
Conn., wrote 800,000 doctors about the warnings. The F.D.A. posted a
warning on its Web site for the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
(www.fda.gov/cder) urging patients to keep OxyContin in a secure place and
to flush unneeded tablets down the toilet.