OxyContin Manufacturer in Legal Trouble
Purdue Pharma, is brought down by authorities for victimizing patients around the country for encouraging physicians to over-prescribe OxyContin and making false claims about its risk of addiction — so says news reports.
The maker of the powerful painkiller OxyContin and three of its current and former executives pleaded guilty Thursday to misleading the public about the drug’s risk of addiction, a federal prosecutor and the company said.
Purdue Pharma L.P. and the executives will pay $634.5 million in fines, U.S. Attorney John Brownlee said in the news release.
The plea comes two days after the Stamford, Conn.-based company agreed to pay $19.5 million to 26 states and the District of Columbia to settle complaints that it encouraged physicians to overprescribe OxyContin.
“With its OxyContin, Purdue unleashed a highly abusable, addictive, and potentially dangerous drug on an unsuspecting and unkowing public,” Brownlee said. “For these misrepresentations and crimes, Purdue and its executives have been brought to justice.”
Other shocking revelations filled in a whistle-blower lawsuit against Purdue Pharma were:
Purdue Pharma gave its sales representatives incentives to sell big quantities of OxyContin, and the sales teams encouraged physicians to prescribe the drug by taking them on expense-paid trips.
OxyContin is also known as “Hillbilly Heroin” for its sometimes lethal addictive qualities.
