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Times Reveals that Purdue Pharma Knowingly Concealed Database of Bad Doctors
Marianne Skolek Salem-News.comAug-15-2013 Purdue Pharma has reaped close to $30 billion in profits since the launch of OxyContin in 1996. Some of these profits were gained from the doctors on a list that Purdue Pharma has not released to authorities. (MYRTLE BEACH, SC) - This week "L.A. Times" reporters Scott Glover and Lisa Girion broke a news story that the maker of the deadly drug, OxyContin, Purdue Pharma, has a list of "about" 1,800 doctors who may have recklessly prescribed the highly addictive drug to addicts and dealers. The problem is Purdue Pharms has not been alerting authorities to their list of "bad docs." Here is the link to the articlehttp://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rxpurdue-20130811,0,1420977.story. Despite having this information that could have saved hundreds of thousands of people from death and addiction, Purdue Pharma has reaped close to $30 billion in profits since the launch of OxyContin in 1996. Some of these profits were gained from the doctors on the list that Purdue Pharma has not released to authorities. Purdue Pharma, their funded pain foundations as well as Partnership for a Drug Free America a/k/a Partnership at a Drug Free. org. (Partnership) and advocacy groups profiting from Partnership have long focused on the prescription drug epidemic being caused by pharmacy robberies, doctor shopping and the famous "empty your medicine cabinets" and drug collection days. I have never bought

what Partnership was selling. Now the "L.A. Times" reveals that Purdue Pharma knowingly concealed the fact that they had a data base of bad docs, I am not convinced that there may be 1,800 bad docs in the data base. My guess would be there are thousands more. Robin Abrams, Purdue Pharma attorney said their data base was to steer its sales reps away from the risky doctors -- and policing the docs was not Purdue's responsibility. She further stated that the pharmaceutical company had alerted law enforcement or medical regulators to approximately 8% of the bad docs named in the data base. Criminal? There is more. Abrams also believes that Purdue Pharma wanted to wait to share their suspicions when the analysis "showed some scientific validity" to its theories about the bad docs -- and they were convinced they were doing everything right for the right reasons. Are you aware Ms. Abrams that when OxyContin first resulted in huge profits for Purdue Pharma, a lead counsel/executive for the company asked his secretary to search the Internet in order to confirm rumors they were hearing about problems of addiction, abuse and death with their blockbuster drug? The efficient secretary found so much evidence of an early problem with OxyContin that she prepared a report and put a copy on the desks of executives of the pharmaceutical company. When her boss discovered what she did, he ordered her to retrieve every copy of the report she prepared and destroy them. Yes Ms. Abrams there was cause when OxyContin was first launched to "share their suspicions" -- Purdue Pharma chose to cover it up. You might not also be aware Ms. Abrams that Purdue Pharma has an ingenious patent that destroys emails and documents. A virus in the form of a Trojan horse is attached to files. It is a self-destruction document or email messaging system that automatically destroys documents or email messages at a predetermined time by attaching a "virus" to the document or email message. The virus contains a portion of executable code or an executable program which instructs the computer to overwrite and/or delete the file to which the virus is attached at a desired time. Since the virus is attached to the file, it will travel with the file even when the file is copied, forwarded, or saved to disks or tape drives. Right out of Mission Impossible -- but why add the extra feature of a virus? What could Purdue Pharma be trying to hide?

Think the "virus" might be applied to the data base of bad docs, Ms. Abrams? The "L.A. Times" reported that starting in 2002 Purdue's sales reps were trained to report "red flags" in doctors' offices such as young patients, long lines, people nodding off in waiting rooms and frequent cash transactions. Purdue attorneys review their reports and if a doctor's practice is deemed too risky, the company bars sales representatives from marketing to the physicians. The suspect doctors are removed from the company's numbered sales territories and assigned to the database, known as "Region Zero." If this data base does still exists at Purdue Pharma and hasn't been destroyed by their patented "worm" it might be better called "Region Death" rather than "Region Zero." Also, Ms. Abrams you may find it interesting that not only was the late Howard Udell general counsel at Purdue Pharma, but he was also an "inventor." Udell pleaded guilty to misleading physicians and patients about the dangers of OxyContin. So when Purdue Pharma is asked to produce the "bad doc data base" will they reply "Wish we could have complied, but you see we have this patent -- and all that information was destroyed by a virus. Did we do something wrong -again?" Here is the patent information with Purdue Pharma's General Counsel, Howard Udell's name on it. Inventors: Udell, Howard R. (US) Baker, Stuart D. (US) Kappel, Cary S. (US) Sherman, Greg M. (US) Ries, William (US) Application Number: EP19980934143 Publication Date: 05/17/2000 Filing Date: 06/16/1998 State Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance, Cal.) said he sent a letter to Purdue asking the company to disclose the names of California doctors in its database. State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord, Cal.) said he would join Lieu in making the request of Purdue.

Ms. Abrams may want to educate herself more about the past deceptive practices of Purdue Pharma before she makes statements as ridiculous as "Purdue Pharma wanted to wait to share their suspicions when the analysis "showed some scientific validity" to its theories about the bad docs -- and they were convinced they were doing "everything right for the right reasons." I compare this continued deception by Purdue Pharma in the mounting deaths and addiction of hundreds of thousands of people throughout the U.S. and Canada to a Monopoly game. They have passed go - made billions of dollars in their lies and concealing of information that could have prevented this horrific loss of lives and devastation to families -- now it's time to go directly to jail!

OxyContin maker closely guards its list of suspect doctors

Purdue Pharma has privately identified about 1,800 doctors who may have recklessly prescribed the painkiller to addicts and dealers, yet it has done little to alert authorities.

By Scott Glover and Lisa Girion August 11, 2013, 7:00 a.m. Over the last decade, the maker of the potent painkillerOxyContin has compiled a database of hundreds of doctors suspected of recklessly prescribing its pills to addicts and drug dealers, but has done little to alert law enforcement or medical authorities. Despite its suspicions, Purdue Pharma continued to profit from prescriptions written by these physicians, many of whom were prolific prescribers of OxyContin. The company has sold more than $27 billion worth of the drug since its introduction in

1996. Purdue has promoted the idea that the country's epidemic ofprescription drug deaths was fueled largely by pharmacy robberies, doctor-shopping patients and teens raiding home medicine cabinets. The database suggests that Purdue has long known that physicians also play a significant role in the crisis. RELATED: Dying for Relief -- a Times investigation Purdue's database, which contains the names of more than 1,800 doctors, could provide leads for investigators at a time when they are increasingly looking at how reckless prescribing of painkillers contributes to addiction and death. Purdue has said little about the list since it began identifying doctors in 2002. A company scientist offered a glimpse into the database at a June drug dependency conference in San Diego, noting it was the first time the program had been discussed in public. In a series of interviews with The Times, Purdue attorney Robin Abrams said the company created the database to steer its sales representatives away from risky doctors. Policing physicians, she said, was not Purdue's responsibility. "We don't have the ability to take the prescription pad out of their hand," she said. Abrams said the company had alerted law enforcement or medical regulators to 154 of the prescribers about 8% of those in its database. The company's tally could not be independently verified. Asked to provide cases reported to law enforcement, she identified three Southern California physicians implicated in major schemes to funnel OxyContin to addicts and dealers. One of them, Masoud Bamdad of San Fernando, took in $1.5 million a year prescribing OxyContin and other painkillers to young addicts. He is serving a 25-year prison sentence on a drug dealing conviction. Bamdad was linked by prosecutors to six

patient deaths. Another doctor, Eleanor Santiago, is awaiting sentencing on federal charges that she helped flood Los Angeles' black market with more than 1 million illicit doses of OxyContin. Physician Kevin Gohar was linked to a suspected prescription mill in Reseda that authorities say sold OxyContin prescriptions to addicts across Southern California. Gohar died of a drug overdose in 2011 while a criminal investigation was pending. Mitchell Katz, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, said Purdue has a duty to report all the doctors on the list, not just a select few. "There is an ethical obligation," said Katz, a critic of what he says is the overuse of painkillers. "Any drug company that has information about physicians potentially engaged in illegal prescribing or prescribing that is endangering people's lives has a responsibility to report it." Abrams said that some of the doctors in the database may no longer be active prescribers, but she could not provide a specific number. OxyContin and other prescription painkillers have fueled a surge in drug overdoses, which in 2009 claimed 39,147 lives, surpassing for the first time traffic accidents as a leading cause of preventable deaths. Two years later, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared prescription drug overdoses an epidemic. Last year, a Times analysis showed that drugs prescribed by doctors played a role in nearly half the prescription overdose deaths in Southern California from 2006 through 2011. Seventy-one doctors prescribed drugs to three or more patients who fatally overdosed. Oxycodone, the active ingredient in OxyContin, was one of the most often cited drugs in the deaths. Concerned by the mounting death toll, a congressional oversight committee in June called three top federal officials to testify about the government's response to the prescription drug crisis. Louisiana Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy asked why the

government wasn't mining prescribing data to target rogue doctors. "I'm expecting it's going to be a small percent writing a lot of the inappropriate prescriptions," said Cassidy, himself a physician. "What's the challenge in figuring out which doctors are the bad actors?" President Obama's drug czar, R. Gil Kerlikowske, testified that the federal government didn't have access to such information.

Copyright 2013, Los Angeles Times 1

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