AP
ROANOKE, Va. (May 10) - 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 unknowing public," Brownlee said. "For these misrepresentations and crimes, Purdue and its executives have been brought to justice."
Inserted from AP
Is there any doubt about the greed in the Pharma industry? And they were able to convince Congress that our buying drugs from outside the US is so dangerous that the FDA must certify anything imported (even from US Co's). So how come the FDA approved OxyContin and its marketing plan in the first place?
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2 comments:
After what Big Pharma invest to develop a drug, only to find out it has side-effects that will kill it, they do a study in which they hire an actuary or "bean counter" to compare the amount they will make from the selling the drug until it is forced off the market with the amount they will lose in legal costs dealing with the people the drug harms and kills. If the former amount is significantly higher, they market the drug anyway.
This is why the Bush regime so strongly favors tort reform to limit jury awards and thus increase profits.
Neither the Big Pharma companies nor the Bush regime care about the people harmed.
My name is Kim Adam and i would like to show you my personal experience with Oxycontin.
I have taken for 3 years. I am 23 years old. I think it is the best pain killer there is. Although it's coming very abused, I think that it is a very powerful reliever and that more doctors should look into it for pain relief.
I have experienced some of these side effects-
mild dependency and constipation
I hope this information will be useful to others,
Kim Adam
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