Six women have filed lawsuits in federal and state courts against the manufacturers and promoters of the drug OxyContin and a Plum physician who they claim improperly prescribed the painkiller.
Two of the lawsuits, originally filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court in May by Sue Ann Leskovic and Jennifer Riggle, were transferred this week to federal court by the drug companies, Purdue Pharmaceuticals Co., of Connecticut; P.F. Laboratories, of New Jersey, and Abbott Laboratories, of Chicago.
The lawsuits accuse Dr. Bernard Rottschaefer, 60, of negligence in writing prescriptions for OxyContin without a diagnosis. Rottschaefer was convicted by a federal jury in March on 153 counts of illegally prescribing painkillers to addicts in return for sex in his office.
Five of the plaintiffs -- Leskovic, Riggle, Pam Miller, Corey Rose Schlemmer and Amy Vivio -- were government witnesses at Rottschaefer's criminal trial. Schlemmer is joined in her lawsuit by her mother, Rosemary Vogel, who was not a patient.
The addresses of the plaintiffs were not available.
U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster is scheduled to sentence Rottschaefer on Sept. 24.
The lawsuits contend that the drug companies deliberately misrepresented to doctors and the public the addictive nature of the drug.
A Philadelphia law firm representing the drug firms didn't return a call for comment.
Attorney Paula Koczan, Rottschaefer's civil lawyer, said her defense will be that the painkillers were prescribed properly.
Catherine Conley, attorney for the women, was unavailable for comment.
