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October 15, 2007

State to get nearly $600,000 in Oxycontin settlement

PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island will receive nearly $600,000 for its Medicaid program from drug maker Purdue Pharma L.P. as part of a nationwide settlement over the marketing of the painkiller OxyContin.

Attorney General Patrick Lynch says the state's Medicaid Fraud Unit will get $589,310.

In July, Purdue Pharma and three current and former executives were fined $634.5 million by a federal judge in Virginia for misleading the public about the painkiller's addiction risks.

OxyContin -- the brand name for oxycodone -- has been blamed for hundreds of deaths across the country in recent years.

Lynch says making false claims to promote a drug can have deadly consequences.

-- The Associated Press

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 5:25 PM | Permalink

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