OxyContin Maker Fined for Pushing Misinformation

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OxyContin Maker Fined for Pushing Misinformation

Posted on May 11, 2007

OxyContin, also known as “hillbilly heroin,” is an effective drug for pain sufferers but also a highly coveted addictive opiate. Just ask Rush Limbaugh. Now the company that makes “Oxy” will have to pay $634.5 million in Justice Department fines for claiming that the painkiller, which has been linked to hundreds of overdose deaths, is less addictive and subject to abuse than the competition.

Los Angeles Times:

The maker of the painkiller OxyContin and three of the company’s top current and former executives will pay $634.5 million in fines after pleading guilty Thursday to charges that they misled the public about the drug.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said it was one of the largest financial penalties ever assessed against a drug maker.

Stamford, Conn.-based Purdue Pharma was accused of making claims that OxyContin was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications and continued to do so despite warnings to the contrary from doctors, the media and members of its own sales force.

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TAGS: addiction drugs fines healthcare hillbilly heroine justice department oxy oxycontin pharmaceuticals

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By P. T., May 12, 2007 at 10:40 pm #

Why shouldn’t the drug company executives responsible for knowingly causing deaths get the death penalty! Why should the death penalty only be for little guys!

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By Hammo, May 12, 2007 at 1:32 pm #

It seems that human beings have a long, long history of altering their minds with various substances. People all over the world and throughout history have done this with alchohol, coffee, tobacco, opium, various plants and mushrooms, etc.

Some substances that can be used as medicines, like OxyContin, obviously can also be abused.

Educating people about the severe, severe dangers of highly addictive narcotic-oriented drugs like OxyContin and the tremendously dangerous and damaging methamphetamine drugs is essential.

We should also take an objective look at the big picture of which substances pose the most danger, and which might have some kinds of benefits with tolderable risks. Thoughts related to this in:

“George Washingtons whiskey distillery rebuilt; first president also grew hemp at Mount Vernon” (AmericanChronicle.com)

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=14731

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By QuyTran, May 11, 2007 at 9:40 pm #

$634.5 Million fines will not be important to pharmaceutical organizations. They’ll make a huge ones next time but how about their victims after using their drugs ?

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