OXYCONTIN LAWSUIT AIMS FOR CLASS-ACTION STATUS

Lawyers Say About 100,000 In Va. Could Benefit

Purdue Pharma, maker of the drug, said the suit's allegations are
"completely baseless."

A.F. McCaulley is a retired coal miner who went to the doctor last
year with a sore shoulder, was given the painkiller OxyContin, and
quickly became addicted after taking just one pill.

Cathy Helton is a mother of two who wound up in jail for forging
checks to support her OxyContin addiction, which began when she was
prescribed the drug following a hysterectomy.

Carol Wagnoner is raising her two young granddaughters after their
mother, an OxyContin addict, deserted the children.

Those stories are just some of the allegations in a lawsuit brought
last week against Purdue Pharma, the Connecticut company that
manufactures OxyContin.

Attorneys who filed the $5.2 billion suit in Lee County Circuit Court
hope to expand it into a class-action proceeding on behalf of anyone
harmed by OxyContin. Based on the reaction so far, they said Monday,
it won't be hard to find additional plaintiffs.

"We've had phone calls all day long about it," said Abingdon attorney
Strother Smith, who estimated the suit might benefit 100,000
Virginians in the area west of Roanoke.

Far Southwest Virginia was the first part of the state to experience
problems with OxyContin, which is easily converted into a street drug
by addicts who crush the pills and snort or inject the powder. At
least 37 people in the region have died from overdoses of oxycodone,
the active ingredient in OxyContin, and police say they have been
overwhelmed by addicts who turn to crime to support their habits.

Attorneys involved in the lawsuit likened it to the massive litigation
brought against tobacco companies for selling a product they knew was
a health risk.

Pharmaceutical companies such as Purdue Pharma "are corporate drug
lords who have and are inflicting pain throughout Southwest Virginia
and the nation, and they should be held accountable," said Emmitt
Yeary, another Abingdon attorney who joined forces with Smith and the
Washington, D.C., firm of Henrichsen Siegel in bringing suit.

The suit accuses Purdue Pharma, which sold more than $1 billion worth
of OxyContin last year, of touting its product as a cure-all treatment
for moderate to severe pain while turning a blind eye to its addictive
side.

The company "continues to make false and fraudulent misrepresentations
because their appetite for significant future profits far outweighs
their concern for the health and safety of the citizens of Virginia,"
the suit claims.

Purdue Pharma said in a statement Monday that it had not seen a copy
of the lawsuit, but believed based on media accounts that the
allegations are "completely baseless."

"We will vigorously defend ourselves and fully expect to prevail," the
statement continued. "We want the many thousands of patients in
Virginia 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."

The company has maintained that only those who abuse OxyContin become
addicted. While some of the plaintiffs in the lawsuits used the drug
improperly, most of them took it exactly as it was prescribed, Yeary
said.

Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are Abbott Laboratories, a
Chicago-based company that helped market and distribute OxyContin, and
two physicians accused of excessively prescribing the drug.

One of the lawsuit's main allegations is that Purdue Pharma heavily
marketed OxyContin while downplaying the addictive risks of the drug,
which is derived from opium. But the lawsuit also makes other claims:
violation of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act; negligence;
creation of a public nuisance; false advertising; conspiracy, and
breach of implied warranty.

Earlier this month, West Virginia's attorney general filed suit
against Purdue Pharma, claiming that its intensive marketing
influenced doctors to over prescribe the drug.

Virginia does not plan to take similar legal action.

"A lawsuit against the manufacturer over its marketing practices years
ago will not help stop the illegal use of OxyContin," Randy Davis,
spokesman for acting Attorney General Randolph Beales, said last week.