VIRGINIANS SUE DRUG'S MAKER, DOCTORS

Addiction Made Easy, Suit Says

Seven Southwest Virginians who say they have suffered
because of OxyContin addiction filed a multibillion-dollar lawsuit
against the drug's maker and two doctors who prescribed it.

The class-action suit filed in Lee County Circuit Court Friday alleges
Purdue Pharma Inc. and four affiliates aggressively marketed the
painkiller while downplaying its risks.

The filing came on the heels of a similar suit filed last week by West
Virginia officials accusing the companies of using coercive tactics to
convince doctors and pharmacists to overprescribe the drug.

"What has happened is an atrocity," said Dawn Stewart of Hedrichsen
Siegel, a Washington law firm representing the plaintiffs. "We have
reason to believe there could be potentially thousands affected by
OxyContin."

The drug, a synthetic morphine often used to treat chronic pain in
cancer patients, has been linked to more than 120 deaths nationwide,
and more than three dozen Southwest Virginians have died of overdoses,
authorities said.

Also representing the plaintiffs are Abingdon attorneys Emmitt Yeary
and S. Strother Smith III.

The complaint filed Friday claims Purdue and four affiliates failed to
warn patients that the drug was dangerously addictive.

"This is growing like a cancer, like a wildfire," Yeary said. "There
are just countless ways the drug is injuring all people."

Also named in the suit are Dr. Richard Norton, a former Lee County
Community Hospital emergency room doctor now serving a federal prison
sentence in South Carolina for embezzling from the hospital, and Dr.
Shireen Brohi, who practices for Merritt Medical Group in Lebanon.

The suit accuses the two doctors of leading patients to addiction by
needlessly prescribing the potent drug.

The suit calls for Purdue to pay more than $5.2 billion in
compensatory damages to the plaintiffs and would require the
Connecticut pharmaceutical giant to set up rehabilitation facilities
in the region and provide ongoing medical monitoring for patients
using the drug.

"We're asking for injunctive relief including medical monitoring,"
said Stewart of the Washington law firm. "We would like to see a
change in the chemical makeup of the drug."

OxyContin is a time-release formulation of the painkiller oxycodone.
Authorities say many addicts abuse the drug by removing its protective
coating, releasing 12 hours worth of painkilling power at once.

Yeary said the suit eventually could represent dozens or even hundreds
of plaintiffs who have suffered injury or lost family members as a
result of OxyContin abuse.

The plaintiffs in the suit filed Friday include patients who were
prescribed OxyContin to relieve pain and became addicted to it and
relatives of people who were affected by OxyContin addiction.