DRUG FIRM KICKS OFF AD BLITZ

OxyContin Maker's Efforts To Fight Abuse Highlighted

As a leading West Virginia lawmaker attempts to ban the main ingredient in
OxyContin, the maker of the painkiller today kicked off an advertising
campaign in newspapers nationwide to highlight its efforts to combat abuse
of the powerful prescription drug.

Purdue Pharma spokeswoman Robin Hogen said there has been too little
recognition in the media for what the pharmaceutical company has tried to
accomplish.

OxyContin is the nation's top-selling narcotic painkiller and generates
more than $1 billion in annual sales. It is widely prescribed for victims
of moderate to severe chronic pain resulting from arthritis, back trouble
or cancer.

One OxyContin, time-release pill is designed to last 12 hours.

Those who abuse the drug crush it, then snort or inject it, producing a
quick, heroin-like high. Federal officials blame OxyContin and similar
drugs for hundreds of deaths nationwide over the past two years.

A physician in Southern West Virginia pleaded guilty earlier this month to
federal charges of prescribing the drug to a woman who didn't need it.

However, many doctors, patients and even some of its critics say OxyContin
is highly effective in relieving chronic pain.

The company faces lawsuits, growing scrutiny from regulators and even calls
for banning the drug.

West Virginia's Senate Majority Leader Truman Chafin, D-Mingo, this week
introduced a bill that would ban the main ingredient of the painkiller --
oxycodone. He said the drug is costing the state millions of dollars and is
destroying lives.

Under Chafin's bill, OxyContin would be changed to a Schedule I drug from
Schedule II under the Uniform Controlled Substances Act. Schedule I
includes drugs with high potential for abuse and no currently accepted
medical use. For the most part, Schedule I drugs are illegal.

But the ingredient oxycodone is used in several drugs critical in treating
pain after back surgery and with cancer patients, said Chris Zinn, a
registered nurse and director of the Hubbard Hospice House in Charleston.
These include Tylox, Percocet and Percodan.

"Oxycodone is so much better in certain elderly patients," Zinn said. It
causes fewer side effects such as confusion.

"We would be handicapped without it."

West Virginia's commissioner for the Bureau of Public Health said that
while officials need to take an aggressive stance with OxyContin abuse,
oxycodone is very useful in pain management, particularly in end-of-life care.

The new Purdue Pharma ads never mention OxyContin. Instead, they say 4
million Americans each month abuse a variety of prescription drugs,
including pain medications, weight-loss pills and antidepressants.

"And Purdue Pharma is doing something about it," the ad says.

The ads highlight Purdue's effort to develop new abuse-resistant medicines,
distribute free tamper-resistant prescription pads and educate teens on the
dangers of prescription drug abuse.

The ads build on another radio campaign begun in November in West Virginia,
Florida, Cincinnati and Philadelphia, discouraging illegal use of
prescription drugs.

The pharmaceutical company's six-month campaign features ads in papers from
Maine to Florida. Company officials declined to say how much the campaign
would cost.

On Tuesday, Dr. James Graves became the first doctor in the country
convicted of manslaughter in the OxyContin death of a patient. The Florida
doctor was convicted of prescribing OxyContin to four patients who died
from overdoses.