MARKETING OF OXYCONTIN IS QUESTIONED

WASHINGTON - Rep. Frank R. Wolf asked the General Accounting Office
and the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human
Services yesterday to investigate the marketing of the prescription
painkiller OxyContin.

"Was the drug marketed more heavily in rural areas such as
Appalachia?" Wolf, R-10th District, asked in one of several questions
to investigators.

Illegal trade and abuse of the powerful painkiller started in rural
communities in Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Maine, and
has spread to some urban areas.

Prescriptions for OxyContin increased by 2,000 percent between 1996
and 2000, compared with a 23 percent increase for such drugs as
codeine and morphine, according to Wolf's letter and testimony by
Drug Enforcement Administration officials last week.

The drug's maker, Purdue Pharma L.P., denied aggressively marketing
and promoting the product.