PIKEVILLE, Ky. - The Pike County Fiscal Court received an update on a lawsuit the county is pursuing against Purdue Pharma, the company that manufactures Oxycontin.

The suit was filed in 2007 against the pharmaceutical company for its marketing of the highly addictive painkiller.

"This drug is a scourge brought on Eastern Kentucky," Judge Executive Wayne T. Rutherford said. He explained that, after he attended several funerals in the county of young people who had died as a result of Oxycontin addiction, he and Sheriff Charles Fuzzy Keesee vowed to do what they could to fight drug abuse in the county.

In addition to various law enforcement efforts such as Operation UNITE, Pike County has worked to bring treatment to the area with a drug treatment program in the county's jail and a new treatment facility in the former Lookout School.

Bradley Sears, an attorney with the Gary C. Johnson law firm, told the Fiscal Court Purdue Pharma has lawyers all over the country, and has been able to move the case out of the Kentucky legal system.

"They managed to take the case to federal court in New York," Sears said. "It has been stuck there for three years, and they [Purdue Pharma] are hoping it will go away."

In 2007, the drug-maker and three executives pleaded guilty in federal court in Virginia to criminal charges for misleading regulators, doctors and consumers about the addictive risks of Oxycontin. Purdue and its parent company agreed to pay $634 million in fines, the third-highest amount ever paid by a drug-maker for this type of violation.

"They came here, where we have coal miners and other occupations that cause a lot of injuries and pain, and look what happened," Judge Rutherford said about the drug that has been called 'hillbilly heroin'.

Sears said his firm has submitted a settlement agreement to the company, but have not received a response.

"On April 23, we submitted a settlement offer of $7.5 million on behalf of Pike County," Sears said. "No amount of money can repair the damage done by Oxycontin. We don't expect to hear from their lawyers."

He went on to explain the judge can send the case back to Pike County, or that Purdue could negotiate a deal.

"This is an important event, not just for the residents of Pike County, but all Kentuckians whose lives have been torn apart from the effects of this powerful and highly addictive narcotic," Rutherford said in a statement. "This company has to be held responsible for their wrongdoing. This suit is not about money, but rather the people who have been affected and seen first-hand the devastation this drug has wrought on Kentucky."