Purdue Suspends OxyContin Shipments  
Posted by ajones -- May 12, 2001
STAMFORD, Connecticut (AP) -- The manufacturer of the prescription painkiller OxyContin has suspended shipments of its large-dose tablets of the drug, citing growing problems with drug abuse.
Purdue Pharma's decision comes a week after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency announced its strategy to combat rising abuse of the drug.
Besides aggressively targeting doctors and pharmacists who over-prescribe the medication, the DEA urged Purdue to reformulate the drug to make it less easy to abuse. Purdue Pharma said government pressure had no part in its decision to suspend distribution of the 160-milligram tablets.
"Even though there have been few reports of diversion of the 160-milligram tablets, Purdue is concerned about the possibility of illicit use of tablets of such high strength," the company said in a statement released Thursday.
OxyContin, approved by the FDA in 1995, is a time-released form of oxycodone, an opium derivative also found in Percocet. It is intended for cancer patients and others with long-term pain, however when crushed and snorted or injected it can deliver a potent high.
More than 120 overdose deaths nationwide have been linked to the drug.
In response, Shop 'n Save supermarkets pulled the drug from its Maine pharmacies, and officials from five eastern states met with Purdue representatives in March to discuss the problem.
The 160-milligram dosage, the highest available, is prescribed for less than 1 percent of OxyContin users.
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