ADDICTION AND ABUSE OF DRUG OXYCONTIN BECOMING WIDESPREAD

Drug Company Being Sued

DIANE SAWYER, co-host:

Well, the reports have been coming around--in from around the country:
from Kentucky, from Boston, from Florida. In Philadelphia, in an
eight-county region they're reporting a number of people addicted and
abusing a drug called OxyContin, and a number of related deaths.
Portsmouth, Ohio, the police are saying that there are hundreds of
cases of OxyContin abuse in the last two years. And in Lee County,
Virginia, which is a town of just 1200 people, they say not only are
dozens and dozens of people getting addicted to OxyContin, it's being
prescribed there. And some of the people there claim that the drug
company wanted it that way. We're going to wade in on all of this,
but first let us tell you a little bit about OxyContin.

ADAM: There's an immediate warm feeling, a feeling of well-being.
Almost--I don't want to say godliness, but a feeling that there's
nothing I can't handle.

SAWYER: (VO) Adam, a former OxyContin abuser, now counsels addicts who
chew, snort or inject the drug, releasing a complete 12-hour dosage at
once, an instant high. First seen in rural Virginia, where it's
called the "pillbilly" or "poor man's heroin," it's abuse has spread
along the Eastern seaboard and into middle America. It's victims are
often middle-aged and also often middle-class.

Captain CHARLES HORNER: I'm furious about it. I'm furious about what
it's done to my community.

SAWYER: (VO) Captain Charles Horner of the Portsmouth, Ohio, Police
Department says in 10 years there, he'd seen only one instance of
heroin abuse and more than 2,000 cases of OxyContin abuse in the last
two years alone. On the street, it sells for as much as $140 for a
single 160 milligram tablet. And that's triggered an epidemic of drug
store break-ins, assaults, robberies; all from desperate addicts.

Capt. HORNER: I see this as the single-most dangerous drug for law
enforcement on the street.

SAWYER: Well, we're joined now, from Knoxville, by Charles Ewing, who
was addicted to OxyContin and is a plaintiff in a current lawsuit, and
his lawyer Emmitt F. Yeary. And we're also joined here in New York by
Dr. J. David Haddox, senior medical director for health policy for
Purdue Pharma, the drug's manufacturer, and our own Dr. Nancy Snyderman.

And we thank you all for being here.

Mr. Ewing, first of all, I want to ask you, you weren't abusing the
drug, were you--you're weren't snorting it, you were taking it?

Mr. CHARLES EWING (Former OxyContin addict): Yes ma'am, orally--by
mouth.

SAWYER: And you got addicted, and what was that addiction like for
you?

Mr. EWING: Well, it just continued out of the first month of taking
it. I was taking it as prescribed and then it got to where my mind
would tell me that I would need another one and another one and
another one. Before you know, I became addicted to the drug and
it--it's a--not only a pain reliever, it's a mind altering drug
because it just destroys you.

SAWYER: And did anyone warn you? Did your doctor warn you? Did you
read in the literature accompanying the drug anything that let you
know that this was a possible risk?

Mr. EWING: No, ma'am.

SAWYER: OK. Mr. Yeary, I know you are filing a multi-billion dollar
lawsuit on behalf of eight clients in Lee County. Now, you have said,
among other things, that no one disclosed the addictive nature of the
drug, and also that it's being used for far too many things, like back
pain. But I want to ask you about some very specific charges. You
think Purdue Pharma has specifically targeted Lee County, why do you
think this and what evidence do you have?

Mr. EMMITT YEARY (Class-action lawsuit attorney): Well, I don't think
it's just Lee County, Virginia, I think they've gone up and done the
Appalachian chain. I think they have done studies to find out that
these rural regions, where people where--had health problems and they
were in the coal mining business, logging, and so they would be
susceptible to pain. So I think that they found that this was a--a
ready market and I think they had done their studies and they have
used, actually, the Appalachian region as a testing area to do testing
for this drug.

SAWYER: You also talk about recruiting doctors, I guess, in effect, in
a way, you allege seducing them by taking them to fancy places like
Florida and talking about the drug?

Mr. YEARY: Yes, ma'am. They would--they've recruited a number of
doctors with--to come to Florida and other exotic places to have what
I would characterize as drug training camps in exotic-type resorts.
Almost a--an "Oxyland" resort type setting to...

SAWYER: All right. Dr. David Haddox, from Purdue Pharma, here with
me. Specifically, have you looked at regions where there are problems
like back pain? Specifically, have you been able to buy profiles of
some of the people in the area and seen, ah, this is an opportunity
for the drug OxyContin?

Dr. J. DAVID HADDOX (Senior Medical Director, Purdue Pharma): Well,
first of off I'm going to tell you I'm a physician, I'm not in sales
and marketing. So, I'm going to talk to you about the medical
indications. We have done nothing of that kind. I think this lawsuit
is baseless and I don't really want to talk too much about the
litigation; if you want we can bring our attorneys to speak to you
about that. I'm from Appalachia. I was raised in Logan, West
Virginia, a coal mining town. There is a lot of back pain down there
for obvious reasons, but we target physicians in our marketing
promotion who are already prescribing opiate medications, narcotic
painkillers. That's because we know they already know how to use them.

SAWYER: So, it would just be convergence, you're saying, if it was
this area, for back pain. But you are targeting those physicians?

Dr. HADDOX: We're targeting physicians in our promotional materials
nationwide who use this type of medication...

SAWYER: Do you...

Dr. HADDOX: ...because we think this medication's superior to some of
the stuff they're using now.

SAWYER: Do you take them to fancy places, like Florida?

Dr. HADDOX: We have done some training exercises in the past, which a
number of pharmaceutical firms have done. But these were not drug
camps, as they were characterized. I actually was a faculty on those
before I joined the company in 1999...

SAWYER: But are you wooing the doctors?

Dr. HADDOX: No, we're teaching the doctors a major problem area, that
is pain management, which is not taught well in medical school.
California just recently passed a law requiring it to be taught in
medical school because it's not taught properly now.

SAWYER: OK.

Dr. HADDOX: We're filling that void.

SAWYER: But pain management, everyone says, is one thing. It's
another thing to use a drug this potent for something for back pain.
Nancy, I don't want to put you on the spot--well, yes, I do want to
put you on the spot here.

Dr. NANCY SNYDERMAN reporting:

Well, the onus does come down to doctors, I think, individually, a
lot. And--and I have to say, I've been to a lot of these kind of
seminars that companies put on. And they are--the purpose is
educational, even if they are sponsored by some companies with their
drug as the banner. But--but here's where doctors really screw up
every day. We do a lousy job managing pain. We dole stuff like
OxyContin out like candy for minimal stuff and then when people are
dying and racked with pain we're afraid to make them addicts. We
are--do a terrible service. I have prescribed this drug, but I do it
with great respect and I must tell you it's not a first-line drug of
choice. And so a lot of it comes down to individual
responsibility.

SAWYER: Is the company willing to admit at all that it has thrown some
kind of TNT into the medical community, here? Just from the nature of
these reports and this addiction.

Dr. HADDOX: Not at all. OxyContin is for moderate to severe pain.
And the American Pain Foundation estimates there are 50 million people
everyday who are suffering from significant pain, whether it be back
pain--not all back pain is significant, but some is very significant.
I've had patients who committed suicide because of back pain.

SAWYER: Well, we've also heard from Mr. Yeary, right, that in addition
to some pharmacists now having to have guns in their pharmacies
because people want this drug and need this drug so badly, that there
are lots of reports of suicide? Yes, Mr. Yeary?

Mr. YEARY: Oh, yes, there's now been a number of suicides; even Mr.
Ew--Mr. Ewing was contemplating suicide. We've had countless reports
of suicide. And I would like to emphasize, too, that, you know, these
drug companies, they have gone up and down, even Dr. Haddox here, he's
gone up and down promoting, giving seminars and suggesting that this
OxyContin--for the last two or three years all over the
region--suggesting that people take this narcotic for just back pain
and this sort of thing. And it's just a problem. This is a monster
drug that's been uncaged by this drug company. They are still not
admitting to the problem. This is getting to be of epidemic
proportions. It is a local disaster and is now spreading throughout
the country from Maine to Mexico, from California to the Carolinas.
It is now a--soon to be a national disaster if we do not do something
about it. This drug needs to be taken off the market.

SAWYER: All right, well, thank you, at least, for letting us get some
sense of the range of the debate here. And we will be back and
covering this issue a lot. We thank you all for being with us this
morning.

Dr. HADDOX: Thank you.

SAWYER: And it's now 16 minutes past. We'll be right
back.

(Commercial break)