LAWMAKERS GRILL EXECUTIVE ON SALES OF POWERFUL DRUG

Congress To Examine Oxycontin Marketing

WASHINGTON -- Congress will study Purdue Pharma's marketing campaign
for OxyContin to see whether the company used excessive tactics to
sell the powerful painkiller.

At a heated House appropriations subcommittee meeting yesterday,
lawmakers grilled a Purdue Pharma executive about his product's
promotional campaigns and heard from two Kentuckians who described
how OxyContin abuse has devastated their communities.

``I have never seen anything in my lifetime in law enforcement that
has taken over a community so fast and has been so devastating,''
former Hazard police chief Rod Maggard told the committee.

Drug Enforcement Agency Director Asa Hutchinson told the committee
that the pharmaceutical company aggressively courted doctors who were
prescribing large amounts of pain medication and urged them to begin
selling OxyContin.

The Stamford, Conn., company gave some doctors free trips and offered
vouchers for free medicine to encourage them to prescribe the drug.

Approved by the Food and Drug Administration in December 1995,
OxyContin sales soared past $1 billion during 2000.

``I don't believe we've ever seen as aggressive a marketing campaign
for a Schedule II narcotic as we've seen for OxyContin,'' Hutchinson
said.

Schedule II drugs have legitimate medical uses, but have the highest
potential for abuse and addiction.

The company said the drug was an ``ideal choice'' to treat
moderate-to-severe chronic pain -- everything from cancer to
arthritis and lower-back pain.

Critics concede the drug has helped ease the pain of severely ill
patients. But they say the drug has hooked thousands of Americans and
created an epidemic from Appalachia to New England.

Donnie Coots, a Hazard minister whose son is a recovering OxyContin
addict, told the committee about the pain the drug has inflicted on
his family. He talked about funerals he's attended for OxyContin
victims.

``OxyContin's killing folks and it's killing them right now,'' he
said. ``They're good people (but) they're trapped.''

OxyContin is suspected of playing a role in 296 overdose deaths over
a 19-month period, officials said.

Paul Goldenheim, a Purdue Pharma vice president, said his company is
spending $100 million to combat drug abuse and illegal diversions.
Purdue Pharma also has hundreds of scientists working to develop an
abuse-resistant form of OxyContin.

``This is the highest priority of our company. We want this problem
solved,'' he said.

But U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Somerset, said that, in some cases, the
company was aware its drug was being overprescribed, but failed to
confront the doctors.

``People were dying and your company did nothing,'' Rogers said, his
voice rising sharply.

Goldenheim told Rogers it isn't Purdue Pharma's job to intervene,
saying, ``We can't stop them from prescribing our product.''

``We can,'' Rogers shot back.

Earlier, Rep. Jose Serrano, D-New York, warned that OxyContin could
eventually be banned, if the company doesn't swiftly respond.

But U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Virginia, promised that the product will
remain available for those who truly need it.

Wolf said the FDA may have erred by allowing OxyContin to be
prescribed for moderate pain.

The General Accounting Office will do the study for Congress. No
completion date has been set.

Meanwhile, federal drug agents are struggling to crack down on its misuse.

``It started in the rural areas. It has spread to the urban areas,''
including Boston and Philadelphia, Hutchinson said.

The DEA, which pursued six cases of illegal OxyContin diversions in
1999 and 37 cases in 2000, already had opened 168 cases by August
2001.

As the scope of the problem becomes better known, some doctors are
refusing to prescribe the drug and some pharmacies are not carrying
it.

But the demand remains high. People are traveling from Appalachia to
Mexico to buy the drug, officials said. Others are ordering it on the
Internet.

This week, nine masked, armed robbers stole 31,000 bottles of the
drug in Mexico City, and DEA officials think much of it will end up
in the United States.

The battle against OxyContin abuse is far from over. Says DEA's
Hutchinson: ``I do not believe we've reached the peak of the problem
yet.''