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OxyContin Foes Attend Fla. Trial
February 16, 2005

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News Summary

A groups of parents opposed to Purdue Pharma, the company that makes the potent painkiller OxyContin, attended a Florida trial last week in which a former employee charged that the company used illegal marketing tactics.

The company won the case, the Tampa Tribune reported Feb. 15, but the Purdue foes walked away satisfied that the charges were aired in open court.

Ed Bisch and Lee Nuss both lost teenage children to OxyContin overdoses, and they were part of a small group dubbed Relatives Against Purdue Pharma (RAPP) attending the Tampa trial pitting former salesperson Karen White against her former employer. "I am here to support Karen White,'' said Nuss. "Morally and ethically, she was doing the right thing ... Win or lose, we are gratified that it [went to the jury] because the truth is going to come out."

Bisch runs a website called Oxyabusekills.com and took a vacation from his job in Philadelphia to attend the trial. The trial judge allowed the group to observe the proceedings, but would not allow them to wear RAPP pins in court, lest they influence the jury.

Purdue Pharma special counsel Tim Bannon said of the RAPP members: "We have nothing but sympathy for their losses. We agree with the premise that abusing OxyContin is at least harmful and can kill. We take no issue with that. We disagree with the contention that the company's marketing practices have produced abuse."

The jury in the Tampa case sided with Purdue, which said that White was fired because of her poor sales record and her philosophical differences with the company over OxyContin sales tactics, which the company said were legal.

Bisch's website, however, faults Purdue for using aggressive sales tactics that led to overprescribing and oversupply of the drug reaching the black market.

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