LAWFUEL – The Law Newswire – Three exeuctives of the OxyContin maker and the company have been fined over $634 million for misleading the public over the drug’s addiction risks.
The Connecticut-based research-based, privately-held pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma LP revealed that the company and three of its executives, including lawyer and former president and former chief medical officer, were ordered to pay over $634 million fine for misleading the public about the OxyContin painkiller’s risk of addiction.
Purdue Pharma’s top lawyer and former president and former chief medical officer pleaded guilty in May for claiming that OxyContin was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications.
The three each also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of misbranding the drug. Of the total fine, $34.5 million was levied on those three.
The pills can produce a heroin-like high if crushed and then swallowed, snorted or injected. In 2002, the DEA said the drug caused 146 deaths and contributed to another 318.
