Cape Breton Regional Police say it could take six weeks to get more answers about the pills. (CBC)

The pharmaceutical company that makes the painkiller OxyContin says the 25,000 pills seized by police in Sydney last week are knockoffs.

"At first glance, they seem to resemble the authentic brand product, but again, the markings are not consistent with what is manufactured by our company here in Canada," Randy Steffan, spokesman for Purdue Pharma, told CBC News Friday.

Cape Breton Regional Police seized the pills in a vehicle in downtown Sydney last Friday.

Police called it the biggest seizure of its kind in Atlantic Canada, if not the country. Investigators identified the pills as OxyContin and said they were worth about $700,000 on the street.

So if it's not the prescription painkiller, what is it?

Staff Sgt. Paul Jobe said the pills have been sent to laboratories for further study.

"We are concerned about these pills being in the street if they are not the real thing," Jobe said. "Bad enough that they are, but even worse if they're not."

He said it could take up to six weeks to determine what's in the pills and whether they pose a health hazard.

Regardless of the lab results, Jobe said, the charges against the two accused — Christopher John Allingham of Eastern Passage and Todd Douglas Miller of Montreal — won't change.

"By holding it out to be a substance, there is an offence, and it's the same as if it was the real substance," Jobe said.

"But with illegally produced substances, our concern is with the quantitative amount of drug in that pill."