Drug Litigation Newsroom

FDA Announces Results of Investigation Into Illegal Promotion of OxyContin

Company Misrepresented Prescription Pain Reliever to Health Care Professionals

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI) announced that The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc. has agreed to pay more than $600 million to resolve criminal charges and civil liabilities in connection with a long-term illegal scheme to promote, market and sell OxyContin, a powerful prescription pain reliever that the company produces.

An investigation by OCI uncovered an extensive, long-term scheme by The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc. to generate the maximum amount of revenues possible from the sale of OxyContin. To further this goal, Purdue trained its sales representatives to make false representations to health care providers about the difficulty of extracting oxycodone, the active ingredient, from the OxyContin tablet; trained its sales force to represent to health care providers that OxyContin did not cause euphoria and was less addictive than immediate-release opiates; and allowed health care providers to entertain the erroneous belief that OxyContin was less addictive than morphine. In addition, Purdue falsely labeled OxyContin as providing "fewer peaks and valleys than with immediate-release oxycodone," and falsely represented that patients taking lower dosages of the drug can always be discontinued abruptly without suffering withdrawal symptoms or tolerance.

"FDA will not tolerate practices that falsely promote drug products and place consumers at health risk," said Margaret O.K. Glavin, Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs. "We will continue to do all we can to protect the public against drug companies and their representatives who are not truthful and bilk consumers of precious health care dollars."

To resolve the criminal charges, Purdue pled guilty to a felony count of misbranding a drug with intent to defraud and mislead. As part of the plea, Purdue will pay a $600 million settlement. That amount includes a criminal fine, restitution to government agencies, over $276 million in forfeiture, and a related civil settlement under which Purdue will pay $100.6 million to the United States.

In addition, Purdue's current and former executive employees, Michael Friedman, Howard Udell and Dr. Paul Goldenheim, pled guilty to a misdemeanor violation of misbranding OxyContin as being the responsible corporate officers during the long-term illegal promotion of the drug.