Purdue Pharma and three current and former company executives pleaded guilty to mislabeling the painkiller OxyContin and agreed to pay $634.5 million in criminal and civil penalties, a U.S. prosecutor said.
The pleas were entered today in federal court in Abingdon, Virginia, John Brownlee, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, said in a statement.
The plea comes two days after the privately held, 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.”
The pleas were entered today in federal court in Abingdon, Virginia, John Brownlee, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, said in a statement.
The plea comes two days after the privately held, 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.”
``Purdue's claims that Oxycontin was less addictive and less subject to abuse and diversion were false,'' Brownlee said. ``The result of their misrepresentations and crimes sparked one of our nation's greatest prescription drug failures.''
In a statement by Jim Heins, a spokesman for the Stamford, Connecticut-based company, Purdue Pharma said the misstatements were made prior to July 2001 and related to the risks of addiction, abuse, withdrawal, and tolerance compared with other pain medications.
``We accept responsibility for those past misstatements and regret that they were made,'' Heins said.
1 comment:
I hope someone reads this who is affiliated with the company, which is guilty of pushing this highly addictive drug on the market. It HAS caused hopeless addiction in the last 11 years to so many bright, beautiful INDIVIDUALS; you people have bleak consciences to not have cared enough for other people as if they were YOUR own children, wives, parents, etc. Many more people have been affected by your heartlessness than the addicts you created; the poor families, loved ones, and friends who had to suffer the horrible decline in productivity and mental faculties that drug addicts go through; having to suffer a loved one stealing from them for drugs one is so terribly addicted to. When you fail to see the importance and uniqueness of each person, you are losing your humanity. Shame on your company. No amount of money can bring back the dead, and your slap on the wrist punishment will not make you see how erronious you were.
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