OXYCONTIN JUDGE MULLS MOTION

Judge James Jones Said He Will Soon Issue A Written Opinion On A
Motion By Purdue Pharma To Dismiss The Lawsuits.

ABINGDON - Thinking out loud from the bench, a federal judge spent
Monday morning mulling over two lawsuits in which three men blame
their OxyContin addictions on the drug's manufacturer. After
questioning lawyers on both sides of the case at length, Judge James
Jones said he will soon issue a written opinion on a motion by Purdue
Pharma to dismiss the lawsuits.

Three men from far Southwest Virginia claim they were prescribed
OxyContin for back pain and other ailments, only to become addicted
because of Purdue Pharma's downplaying of the drug's dangers. Purdue
Pharma argues that because Charles Brummett, Joseph Deckard and A.L.
McCauley took other opium-based drugs - often illegally - long before
they tried OxyContin, they cannot prove the painkiller is the source
of their problems. If that's the case, Jones asked, "why is OxyContin
the villain?" Because, plaintiffs' attorney Douglas McNamara replied,
Purdue Pharma's sales representatives misled doctors by telling them
that OxyContin posed less of a threat for abuse and addiction than
other opium-based drugs. "It was heralded as something it wasn't,"
McNamara said. "A lot of doctors used it ... and not surprisingly, it
did become a drug that was more abused than other opioids." But what
proof is there that the doctors were fooled, Jones asked - raising the
same kinds of questions that state and federal judges have had about
OxyContin lawsuits filed across the country. William Eskridge, an
Abingdon attorney who represents Purdue Pharma, noted that no federal
judge has allowed a lawsuit like the ones filed by Brummett, Deckard
and McCauley to go to a jury. "You won't be plowing any new ground by
granting summary judgment in this case," Eskridge told the judge.

Of the 500-some lawsuits filed against Purdue Pharma, about 100 have
been dismissed or dropped, according to the company. There have been
no jury verdicts or settlements. McCauley was the first to sue three
years ago; Brummett and Deckard are part of a second case that was
consolidated with McCauley's for pretrial matters in U.S. District
Court in Abingdon. When McCauley first filed suit, his attorneys asked
for $5.2 billion in damages in what they predicted would become a
class-action lawsuit.

An attempt to certify the case as a class-action lawsuit was later
dropped. Although Jones said he will rule later on whether to throw
out the lawsuits, he sided with the plaintiffs on another issue Monday
- - ruling that the three men can have a joint trial, rather than the
separate proceedings favored by Purdue Pharma. "Of course," the judge
hastened to add, "if I grant the motion for summary judgment, that
issue will be moot."