DRUG EXECS PLEAD GUILTY

Oxycontin Makers Misled Public About Addictive Painkiller

ROANOKE, Va.. - The maker of the powerful painkiller OxyContin and
three of its current and former executives pleaded guilty Thursday to
misleading the public about the drug's risk of addiction, a federal
prosecutor and the company said. Purdue Pharma LP, its president, top
lawyer and former chief medical officer will pay $634.5 million in
fines for claiming the drug was less addictive and less subject to
abuse than other pain medications, U.S. Attorney John Brownlee said.

The plea agreement settled a national case and came two days after the
Stamford, Conn.-based company agreed to pay $19.5 million to 26 states
and the District of Columbia to settle complaints that it encouraged
physicians to overprescribe OxyContin.

"With its OxyContin, Purdue unleashed a highly abusable, addictive,
and potentially dangerous drug on an unsuspecting and unknowing
public," Brownlee said. "For these misrepresentations and crimes,
Purdue and its executives have been brought to justice."

Privately held Purdue learned from focus groups with physicians in
1995 that doctors were worried about the abuse potential of OxyContin.
The company then gave false information to its sales representatives
that the drug had less potential for addiction and abuse than other
painkillers, the U.S. attorney said.

Ken Jost of the Justice Department's Office of Consumer Litigation
said this case should put pharmaceutical companies on notice that they
won't be able to get away with breaking the law to make a profit.

"The things that they plot in their boardrooms, the things that they
do behind closed doors will not stay behind closed doors," Jost said.
"We have the people, we have the resources. We'll take the time and
we'll take the effort to find out what they did and how they did it."
Purdue Pharma said it accepted responsibility for its employees'
actions and has implemented changes to prevent a similar occurrence.
Company Chief Executive Officer Michael Friedman, general counsel
Howard Udell and former chief medical officer Paul Goldenheim each
pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of misbranding the drug. Of the
total fine, $34.5 million was levied on those three.

The fines will be distributed to state and federal law enforcement
agencies, the federal government, federal and state Medicaid programs,
a Virginia prescription monitoring program and individuals who had
sued the company. About $5 million will go toward a six-year
compliance program. Drug Fatalities OxyContin, a trade name for
oxycodone, is a time-release painkiller that can be highly addictive.
Designed to be swallowed whole and digested over 12 hours, the pills
can produce a heroinlike high if crushed and then swallowed, snorted
or injected.

From 1996 to 2001, the number of oxycodone-related deaths nationwide
increased five-fold while the annual number of OxyContin prescriptions
increased nearly 20-fold, according to a report by the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration. In 2002, the DEA said the drug caused 146
deaths and contributed to an additional 318.