PROVIDENCE – The Medicaid Fraud Unit of the R.I. Attorney General’s Office has recovered $589,310 from the federal government’s OxyContin settlement, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch announced.
OxyContin is an extended-release form of the habit-forming drug oxycodone – a synthetic morphine substitute, derived from the opium poppy, that can create a heroin-like high – that from 1996 to 2001 was promoted as a low-risk painkiller by The Purdue Frederick Co. Inc. of New York and Purdue Pharma LP of Delaware, Bloomberg News has said.
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In May, after a four-year investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia in conjunction with other state and federal law enforcement agencies, The Purdue Frederick Co. and its top three executives pleaded guilty to charges of knowingly and fraudulently misbranding OxyContin as being less addictive, less subject to abuse and diversion, and less likely to cause tolerance and withdrawal problems than other pain medications, Lynch’s office said.
The company also entered into civil agreements with the federal government and 26 states, agreeing to a $634.5 million settlement – approved July 20 by U.S. District Judge James Jones, in the case “U.S. v. The Purdue Frederick Co. et al, 07- 00029, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia (Abingdon),” according to Bloomberg News – that included $160 million for damages caused by its misbranding of OxyContin from 1995 to 2005. The money received by Rhode Island is part of that settlement.
“The illegal practices engaged in by Purdue put people’s health and their very lives at risk,” Lynch said in a statement. “Making false claims to promote and market a potent drug can have dangerous and even deadly consequences.
“Purdue is paying the price for taking advantage of vulnerable people nationwide, including low-income Rhode Islanders.”
The settlement also required Purdue to enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General, which will monitor the company’s operations to ensure future compliance.
