THE SELL

Though sales flew past every goal that Purdue Pharma set, OxyContin
marketers continued to devise ways to generate more prescriptions,
according to company documents in the Florida attorney general's files.

One objective proposed for 1998: "attach an emotional aspect to non-cancer
pain so physicians treat it more seriously and aggressively." A tactic:
Every month, mail 10,000 "Pain of the Month" postcards to doctors.

The next year, marketers urged more focus on the elderly, injury victims
and surgical patients.

For 2001, they called for nearly tripling the number of targeted doctors to
157,000, and for sales reps to make 1.2 million calls on them.

The marketing documents made scores of proposals for the years from 1996 to
2002, and it couldn't be determined which ideas were finally implemented.

But they illustrate an energetic sales effort. "Purdue Pharma's corporate
goal is to be one of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies by 2010" measured
both by sales and image within the industry and community, the 2001
marketing proposal declared.

One enterprising suggestion for 1996 was to commission a Gallup poll on
untreated pain to create a "media hook" that would spawn news coverage of
OxyContin. Planners called that idea a "classic problem-solution strategy
to create a need."

Yet another plan was for Purdue's marketing partner, Abbott Laboratories,
to give free patient-activated intravenous drug pumps to hospitals that put
100 patients on OxyContin after surgery. Purdue announced the plan
internally in 1997, but Abbott never launched it, Ohio court records show.

Florida began investigating Purdue's marketing in 2001 but quit last year
when the company agreed to give the state $2 million to fight illicit pill use.