House Members Say Firm Did Little To Halt Oxycontin Abuse

Rogers Calls For Probe Of Painkiller

Rep. Hal Rogers -- facing an epidemic of OxyContin abuse in his Eastern
Kentucky district -- said yesterday that he'll seek an investigation of how
the manufacturer marketed and promoted the powerful painkiller.

Rogers, R-5th District, joined Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., in calling for a
General Accounting Office investigation after clashing at a hearing with a
top official of Purdue Pharma, the Stamford, Conn. based manufacturer of
OxyContin.

Rogers and Wolf said the company was too aggressive in marketing the drug,
sold in time-release pills for treatment of chronic pain, and has failed to
act to halt the abuse.

Dr. Paul Goldenheim, executive vice president of Purdue Pharma, defended
the company's marketing methods and its efforts to combat the abuse and
said he welcomed a GAO examination. The GAO is the investigative agency of
Congress.

At a hearing of a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, Asa
Hutchinson, head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, said law
enforcement organizations are still struggling to get the problem under
control.

The DEA has blamed 117 deaths in 31 states in the past two years on
OxyContin and suspects 179 more deaths are related to the drug. Earlier
this year, federal authorities blamed OxyContin for 59 deaths in Eastern
Kentucky in announcing a crackdown on illegal trafficking.

''I do not believe we have reached the peak of this problem yet,''
Hutchinson told the congressional panel.

A number of local and state law enforcement officials also testified,
saying OxyContin has led to suicides, ruined families and left communities
struggling with violent crime.

''It has been a nightmare for me,'' said former Hazard Police Chief Rod
Maggard, who retired in March. ''. . . If this had been measles or
smallpox, our community would have been quarantined from the rest of the
world.''

Many of the law enforcement officials called for a national program to
monitor all prescriptions, much like the systems now used in Kentucky and
13 other states.

Goldenheim defended Purdue Pharma's response to the rise in abuse of
OxyContin but was scolded by Rogers.

''Your company did nothing and people were dying!'' Rogers said.

Goldenheim said that addressing the illegal use of the drug was his
company's ''highest priority.''

But Rogers pointed to reports about a sudden increase in OxyContin
prescriptions from a clinic in Myrtle Beach, S.C., where lines formed
outside the doors and cars jammed the parking lot.

''It is obvious to me if you got that kind of spike in one location of the
country, you ought to pay attention to it, and you didn't, did you?''
Rogers asked.

Goldenheim said the company noted the situation and talked to physicians
and pharmacists about making sure only legitimate patients were given the drug.

''Our powers are limited here,'' he said.

''Oh, give me a break!'' Rogers interrupted, citing a fourfold increase in
OxyContin addicts at the clinic in the past 18 months.

''How do you explain it? How did you not notice something was wrong in
Myrtle Beach?'' Rogers asked.

Goldenheim said that if carloads of people were seeking the drug, local
police should have taken action. ''We have no way of knowing whether or not
people are engaged in criminal activity at that clinic,'' he said.

He said the company doesn't sell OxyContin directly to doctors or to
clinics. ''We don't control what they prescribe -- that's not our job,'' he
said. ''We can't stop them from prescribing our product.''

''We can,'' Rogers shot back.

Rep. Jose Serrano, a Democrat whose Bronx district has seen decades of drug
abuse but has yet to see an OxyContin problem, warned Goldenheim that the
company needs to show it is fully committed to aiding in the fight against
illegal use of its product or ''you're going to be banned from selling it.''

OxyContin was launched in 1996 to help doctors treat patients with chronic
pain. But abusers discovered that crushing the pills bypassed their
time-release feature and allowed an instant high.

Signs of abuse began showing up early last year in Maine, followed by
Eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia.

The DEA prosecuted only six cases involving illegal use of OxyContin in
1999. That rose to 37 cases last year and rocketed to 168 more cases this
year through August, Hutchinson said.

Sales of OxyContin went from $4 million in 1996 to $1 billion last year.
West Virginia State Police Capt. Rick Hall said OxyContin ''has devastated
Appalachia.''

''If this was a product like a car tire or something, it would be
recalled,'' he said. ''I'm not so sure it shouldn't be.''

Wolf, explaining why he wants a GAO investigation, said, ''My sense is the
marketing has been excessive.''

But Goldenheim said the company hasn't aggressively pushed the drug and,
since its illegal use became known, has emphasized to doctors and
pharmacists the dangers of abuse and ways it can end up being illegally
resold on the street.

Maggard and others said addicts can get around a prescription monitoring
program like the one in Kentucky by going to a nearby state, like Virginia
or West Virginia, that lacks such monitoring. Only a national network
covering every state, like criminal identifications, will be effective,
Maggard said.

Donnie Coots, pastor at Mason's Creek Church of God in Hazard, introduced
the congressmen to his 22 year-old son Joshua, who became addicted to
OxyContin. The elder Coots said his son, after forging checks on the
church's bank account, was forced to choose between jail and a
rehabilitation program.

The youth chose the latter and after six months' treatment returned home
last month, his father said.

''OxyContin is killing folks, and it's killing them now,'' Donnie Coots
said. ''I wish I had some real wisdom from God to tell the company or you
to 'do this.'

''I'm begging you, please do something.''