Pubdate: Thu,  4 Sep 2003
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2003 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Nat Ives
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

DRUG MAKER SOUNDS THE ALARM ON DRUG ABUSE

NEW commercial again sounds the alarm of prescription drug abuse, and the
company behind it is Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, a painkiller that
had more than $1.3 billion in sales last year but has also has been widely
abused.

Although the spot running in 18 markets works like a public service
announcement, showing a teenager raiding his parents' medicine cabinet, it is
also part of an effort by Purdue Pharma to present itself as part of the
solution to nationwide abuse of its product. Yet, OxyContin is never mentioned.

OxyContin became widely abused after people discovered ways to use it for a
heroinlike high. But the high came at the cost of addiction, and in hundreds of
cases it contributed to death.

Since receiving government approval for sale in 1995, OxyContin has become the
top-seller for Purdue Pharma and has helped chronic pain sufferers who were
failed by earlier treatments. But the abuse has cast a pall over the drug and
its maker. Among the ill effects for Purdue Pharma is a proposal to reduce the
list of the kinds of pain for which OxyContin can be prescribed. Some
pharmacies have even stopped stocking it for fear of robbery by addicts.

Critics say the spots are more likely a public relations effort than a bid to
improve public health. Still, some consultants say they are the best way to
keep a beneficial product available.

"Purdue Pharma is doing the right thing," said Peter Segall, a general manager
overseeing the health practice at the Washington office of Edelman. "If this
were an attempt to sell more product, it could be justifiably criticized. I
don't think it is."

And John Brady, president at Equality Consulting in Hollywood, Calif., who has
worked with clients including Alcon Laboratories and Pfizer, said, "they need
to be able to communicate to the public, to demonstrate that they are acting
responsibly."

"If they do not speak publicly about these issues," Mr. Brady said, "and if the
industry doesn't at large, we will see in general reduced investment in the
pharmaceutical industry and a decline in the creation and production of
effective drugs."

Purdue Pharma executives say the company reacted swiftly to reports of its
drug's abuse.

"We never anticipated that OxyContin would become popular with drug abusers,"
said Robin Hogen, vice president for public affairs at Purdue Pharma in
Stamford, Conn. But once the problems were clear, he said, Purdue Pharma began
an aggressive response that has so far cost $130 million on ads and other
measures. Mr. Hogen said OxyContin was not mentioned in the ad campaign because
the message was about the abuse of any and all prescription drugs.

The new spot is part of a much broader effort intended to fight prescription
drug abuse through a program that includes cooperating with law enforcement
agencies, financing anti-abuse programs that go into schools and the
distribution of tamper-resistant prescription pads to more than 14,000 doctors.

There was also an educational campaign aimed at teenagers, carrying the theme
"Painfully Obvious," that included giving away squishy toy brains dramatizing
the risks of prescription drug abuse and a Web site, www.painfullyobvious.com.
That campaign was created by North Castle Partners Advertising in Stamford,
Conn.

The current ad campaign, which began in February last year, is aimed largely at
parents, police and medical professionals. It includes print, television and
radio components.

It appears not only where it might influence legislators, but in markets where
there has been significant abuse, from Florida to Pennsylvania to Alaska. The
current spot will probably run through November, with decisions on further
installments to come early next year.

Earlier commercial showed pharmacists or police officers delivering messages
like, "Prescription drug abuse is a problem we all need to fight."

The company would not describe its spending on the current ad campaign, other
than to say it had spent several million dollars so far.

"This isn't a McDonald's advertising campaign," said Peter Fenn, president at
the Fenn Communication Group in Washington, which created the campaign. "But
it's serious and it's over the long term."

Critics argue that Purdue Pharma helped create the problem and has a duty to
help mitigate it.

"They are trying to appear to be good citizens in a p.r. campaign that is
designed to neutralize the very dangers they designed," said Sidney Wolfe, a
doctor and the director for the Public Citizen's Health Research Group.

At the local level, where public officials saw the effects of OxyContin abuse
before virtually anyone else, some said Purdue Pharma's efforts were welcome,
if not as prompt as some had hoped.

"They kind of came on board late, I felt, after the firestorm began," said Jack
L. Coleman Jr., a Democratic state representative in Kentucky. "We're way into
this. I can't be critical of it necessarily, but as somebody who's been
fighting this for years and years, it seems a little outside the range of
serious help."

If popular culture this summer is any guide, such campaigns will have to
continue as each new generation masters the remote control for the television.

A recent episode of "The O.C.," a new drama on the Fox network, even gave the
drug a plug. "Maybe he's on OxyContin," one character says at a party, speaking
of the handsomely delinquent protagonist who has just moved to town. "OxyContin
is gnarly."
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MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk