OXYCONTIN MAKER REBUFFS OHIO LAWYER

Purdue Pharma Says Lawyer Made 'Frivolous' Charges

The attorney suggested that former police officers might give the company
inside information gleaned from their law enforcement duties.

The manufacturer of OxyContin is seeking sanctions against an attorney who
said the company's employment of former law enforcement officials gives it
an unfair advantage in lawsuits involving the prescription painkiller.

The attorney, Joseph Hale of Portsmouth, Ohio, is suing Purdue Pharma over
the death of a woman who overdosed on OxyContin.

A motion for a restraining order filed by Hale in February seeks to
prohibit the company from using any former law enforcement officials it now
employs - including a Virginia State Police sergeant from the Roanoke area
- - in defending the lawsuit.

Hale maintains that former police officers and prosecutors who fought
OxyContin abuse before taking high-paying jobs with Purdue Pharma might
give the company inside information gleaned from their law enforcement duties.

The motion relies on "conjecture, speculation and innuendo," and should be
denied, Purdue Pharma said recently in a sharply worded response. The
company exhaustively contested Hale's assertions in a stack of legal
documents that weighed 4 1/2 pounds.

Saying the "frivolous motion serves only to harass" Purdue Pharma, the
company is asking a federal judge in Cincinnati to impose sanctions against
Hale.

Sanctions are used to punish an attorney for improper conduct. They are
rarely imposed and generally require the attorney to pay a fine or legal
fees incurred by the opposing side over the issue in question.

"In a case such as this where the plaintiff's attorney is representing
someone who died from drug abuse and is attempting to prevent Purdue Pharma
from effectively combating drug abuse, you seem to have all the necessary
elements," said Tim Bannon, a spokesman for Purdue Pharma.

The company says it hired Landon Gibbs, who previously supervised
investigations of prescription drug crime for the state police in Salem, as
part of its effort to learn more about OxyContin abuse and devise ways to
prevent it. In September, Gibbs began work as assistant director of the
company's law enforcement liaison and education department.

In an affidavit filed with Purdue's response, Gibbs said he has no
involvement in Hale's lawsuit. He called the motion a "baseless attack upon
my integrity and character."

Gibbs said that a March 2 article in The Roanoke Times about Hale's motion
adopted the motion's "twisted and misleading version of the facts." As a
result, Gibbs said, he was forced to obtain an unlisted telephone number
due to the "unwanted and offensive public response to this article."

Hale could not be reached for comment this week.

In his motion, he asserted that Purdue Pharma has made a concerted effort
to hire law enforcement officials from areas most affected by OxyContin
abuse, including Southwest Virginia.

More than 60 people in the region have died from overdoses involving the
drug's active ingredient, and police say OxyContin abuse is the reason for
increased crime.

Hale said two former federal prosecutors, Jay McCloskey of Maine and Joseph
Famularo of Kentucky, work for Purdue Pharma as consultants.

McCloskey, who is now in private practice and represents Purdue Pharma "in
a variety of matters," has spoken about prescription drug abuse at seminars
funded by the company, according to its response.

As for Famularo, the company said, he once was an unpaid consultant whose
only compensation was for about $600 in travel expenses.