• The New York Times, Tuesday, June 19, 2007 11:30 AM

Purdue Pharma will turn over 90% of the profits it initially made from falsely marketing the painkiller OxyContin. That's if a federal judge accepts a plea-bargain arrangement reached last month between prosecutors and its subsidiary, Purdue Frederick, and three current and former executives.

The company and its officials agreed to pay $634.5 million in penalties and fines in pleading guilty to criminal charges that it had misled doctors and patients when it claimed from late 1995 to mid-2001 that the drug was less likely to be abused than traditional narcotics. OxyContin relieves serious pain for up to 12 hours. Soon after its introduction, it became a popular drug of abuse among both drug addicts and novices, including teenagers.

Prosecutors did not recommend incarceration for the defendants but told Judge James P. Jones of Federal District Court in Abingdon, Va., they believe their conviction will serve as a deterrent to other pharmaceutical industry executives. Jones is expected to make his decision at a hearing next month.

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