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 The
Brown & Crouppen law firm believes that drug companies
who place profit above people must be held accountable
for their negligence and the damage they cause to
innocent victim’s lives. Brown & Crouppen’s skills,
credentials and resources have helped thousands of
clients win millions of dollars from the manufacturers
and suppliers of unsafe drugs and products. By
partnering with several of the nation’s premier drug
litigation specialists, we’ve brought together a legal
team that has successfully tackled prescription drug
litigation cases, including Rezulin™, Fen-Phen™,
Lotronex™, Zyprexa™, Prempro™, PPA™, Ephedra, and
OxyContin™.
The prescription drug OxyContin is a morphine derivative
used to treat moderate to severe pain. The medication
works by attaching to certain opioid receptors in the
brain and spinal cord and blocking the transmission of
pain messages to the brain. First introduced in 1995,
the drug has received a lot of press in recent years due
to a significant number of cases of illegal diversion
and abuse. Taken on a daily basis, OxyContin can result
in physical dependency; if stopped suddenly, the user
experiences severe withdrawal symptoms. The drug has
also been linked to hundreds of deaths.
The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has strengthened its
labeling precautions for OxyContin tablets, and in 2001
issued a "black box warning" -- the strongest type of
warning carried by prescription drugs. In 2002, a study
of American students found OxyContin abuse beginning as
early as the eighth grade. The Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) has found the highest rates of
abuse in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and
Pennsylvania. At least 1,000 deaths per year are due to
OxyContin abuse. Currently, the DEA is requesting that
family physicians and non-specialists be banned from
prescribing the drug.
OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma has been criticized
for failing to provide adequate warning of the risk of
addiction associated with the drug, and the target of
numerous lawsuits nationwide for its aggressive
marketing of the drug and minimization of OxyContin’s
highly addictive nature. These tactics seem to have paid
off, since the company owes almost 70 percent of its
annual $1.8 billion in revenue to the sale of the
powerful narcotic. Since OxyContin’s introduction to the
market, Purdue Pharma more than doubled its sales force
from 300 plus to more than 700 sales representatives.
As recently as January 2004, congressional investigators
said that Purdue Pharma sent promotional videos to
physicians making unsubstantiated assertions that
minimized the dangers of the pain-relief drug. In
January of 2003, Purdue Pharma agreed to suspend medical
journal advertisements for the medication due to the
FDA’s allegation that the advertising is misleading. The
FDA also warned Purdue Pharma about advertisements that
do not include adequate notification regarding the
“potentially fatal risks associated with OxyContin.”
If you have been injured by a dangerous drug, the
manufacturer may have failed in its duty to design,
make, inspect and label the product appropriately.
Please contact Brown & Crouppen today
via e-mail or call Toll Free: 866-991-4700 for your
free initial consultation. Our experienced team of
lawyers, medical professionals and investigators would
like to represent you and help equal the odds of your
winning a fair settlement or award from the companies
who have put dangerous drugs into the hands of
consumers.
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