Former OxyContin executives plead guilty

Purdue Pharma LP, its president, top lawyer and former chief medical officer will pay $634.5 million in fines for claiming the drug was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications, U.S. Attorney John Brownlee said.

The plea agreement settled a national case and came two days after the Stamford, Conn.-based company agreed to pay $19.5 million to 26 states and the District of Columbia to settle complaints that it encouraged physicians to overprescribe OxyContin.

Privately held Purdue learned from focus groups with physicians in 1995 that doctors were worried about the abuse potential of OxyContin. The company then gave false information to its sales representatives that the drug had less potential for addiction and abuse than other painkillers, the U.S. attorney said.

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WASHINGTON (AP) ? Federal revenue collections hit an all-time high in April, contributing to a further improvement in the budget deficit for the year.

Releasing its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department said Thursday that through the first seven months of this budget year, the deficit totals $80.8 billion, significantly below the $184.1 billion imbalance run up during the first seven months of the 2006 budget year.

So far this year, tax revenues total $1.505 trillion, an increase of 11.2 percent over the same period last year. That figure includes $383.6 billion collected in April, the largest monthly tax collection on record.

Tax collections swell in April every year as individuals file their tax returns by the deadline.

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ? Hershey, the nation’s largest candy maker, said Thursday it will earn less in 2007 than it had originally forecast, a day after disclosing plans to close its last two plants in Canada and cut jobs from another plant in Pennsylvania.

Its shares dropped more than 3 percent in morning trading.

The Hershey Co. blamed a sluggish domestic business and higher dairy costs for lowering its earnings growth estimate for this year to 4 percent to 6 percent, down from the 7 percent to 9 percent range it forecast last month. It maintained its forecast of sales growth in the 3 percent to 4 percent range.

The maker of Reese?s, Hershey?s Kisses and Ice Breakers gum has pledged to put more muscle into advertising and marketing to invigorate sales after it stumbled in late 2006.