Judge Refuses Attempt To Give Case A Va. Defendant

OXYCONTIN SUIT WILL BE HEARD IN FEDERAL COURT

Purdue Pharma's Lawyers Said The Attempted Addition Was A Sham Designed To
Get The Case Back To State Court.

A $5.2 billion lawsuit claiming that a pharmaceutical company caused
rampant crime and addiction in far Southwest Virginia with its potent
painkiller will remain in federal court, a judge ruled Thursday.

Four people claim in the lawsuit that OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma
heavily promoted the drug as a miracle painkiller while failing to warn of
its highly addictive side, causing them to get hooked on the pills.

A fifth plaintiff said she was forced to take in her grandchildren after
their mother became addicted.

After the lawsuit was filed in Lee County Circuit Court in June, Purdue
Pharma had it transferred to U.S. District Court in Big Stone Gap on the
grounds that none of the defendants were from Virginia. Lawsuits involving
parties from different states are generally heard in federal court.

Hoping to have the case sent back to Lee County, the plaintiffs' attorneys
sought to add a defendant, Physician Access Inc. of Scott County, in an
amended lawsuit.

Physician Access is owned by Dr. Richard Norton, who is accused in the
lawsuit of overprescribing OxyContin. Norton lived in Kingsport, Tenn.,
before being sent to federal prison on fraud charges last year, and Purdue
Pharma's lawyers argued that the late addition of his Virginia-based
company was a sham designed solely to get the case back into state court.

"The timing raises a red flag that the plaintiff may be forum shopping,"
Judge James Jones wrote in an opinion declining to add Physician Access as
a defendant and also declining send the case back to state court.

Purdue Pharma attorney William Eskridge said the decision was an initial
victory in what promises to be a long legal fight. Among other things,
Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma had argued that federal court was the
proper venue because OxyContin is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration.

Although the plaintiffs had hoped to try the case in Lee County - one of
the areas hardest hit by OxyContin abuse - attorney Emmitt Yeary of
Abingdon said he would pursue the case in federal court.

"This is a very important case not only to the plaintiffs but to the public
at large," Yeary said. "This is a very dangerous drug."

Since 1997, there have been at least 55 fatal overdoses in which the drug's
active ingredient was the primary cause of death or a contributing factor,
according to the state medical examiner's office. Police say crime in the
coalfields has soared as abusers have become addicted by crushing OxyContin
tablets and snorting or injecting the powder.

Purdue Pharma says it should not be blamed for illegal use of OxyContin, a
highly effective painkiller when taken as prescribed.

But the lawsuit, which attorneys hope to broaden into a class-action filing
that would represent hundreds of Virginians, claims that some people became
addicted after taking the drug exactly as told by their doctors.