MAKER OF OXYCONTIN VOWS TO KEEP DRUG AVAILABLE

PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- An attorney who filed the latest lawsuit against the
maker of OxyContin said his ultimate goal is to see the drug taken off the
market.

"This medication has become a scourge, and if the manufacturer won't
voluntarily pull it off the market for the benefit of consumer safety, we
will try to give them some incentive to do it," said Louisville attorney
Gary L. Gardner. "We want to eat into their profits so bad they'll have to
do something."

Gardner, along with Pikeville attorney Ira Branham, filed suit Tuesday in
Pike County Circuit Court against the drug's manufacturer, Purdue Pharma of
Stamford, Conn., and several associated companies. The suit doesn't ask for
specific damages.

Jim Heins, a spokesman for Purdue Pharma, told The News-Express of
Pikeville that the company has no plans to take the drug off the market.
"We want the many thousands of patients in Kentucky receiving pain relief
from OxyContin tablets to rest assured that nothing in this case, or in any
other case, will cause us to abandon them or deter us from making sure our
drug is available to them," Heins said.

Heins said Purdue Pharma's promotion of OxyContin has been legal,
conservative and responsible, and that the company has worked with police
and others to cut abuse of the drug.

Three people from Pike and Floyd counties are named as plaintiff's in the
latest lawsuit, along with the estate of a deceased woman. They're claiming
the companies deceptively marketed the drug, then over prescribed it in
eastern Kentucky, which led to problems with crime, addiction and death.

Two Pikeville pharmacies also are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

In a separate case, six Kentucky residents and the estates of two others
have filed a lawsuit in Clay County Circuit Court seeking $300 million plus
other damages from the company.

Other lawsuits have already have been filed in Ohio, Virginia and West
Virginia in recent weeks.