Question 15: How much OxyContin abuse is real? What is the actual incidence?

Raymond Sinatra, MD: Another question ... "How much of this OxyContin abuse is real, what is the incidence, how much of the total prescription use is diverted to illegal use." Anything from the company on that Commander Burke? Very low percentage overall.

Commander John Burke: Yeah, I think it is, I think it is. I think those are things that are very difficult to gauge. It's certainly being abused, I don't think anybody's going to deny that, what actual percentage I don't know. But in the number of prescriptions written I would assume very low percentage wise. I believe there's 500,000 if I'm not mistaken OxyContin prescriptions written a month now, and I know of that group I'm guessing we're in the one percent range or less. But I don't really have anything totally to base that on, and of course in some areas perhaps, the areas we mentioned before, that percentage may be higher. But I don't think it's ... in fact, the vast majority of people are still taking it as they're supposed to.