Speaking of opioids, here are three interesting items from today’s edition of DIA Daily. One thing, however, that remains absent in the debate over how to address the issue is the Hamburg Manifesto – enhanced physician education. Now it's time for the DEA to step up to the plate and mandate specific education as a must-have for prescribing rights.
So far, alas, only silence from the DEA on this topic. This must change.
Pharma Association CEO Offers Possible Reforms To Curb Prescription Drug Abuse.
Mark Merritt, president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, writes in the The Hill (10/2, Merritt) about options in trying to abate prescription drug abuse issue in the US. Merritt offers “two basic reforms”: first, a “safe pharmacy” or “lock-in” policy in Medicare in which “the small segment of patients who are at risk of abusing opioids would choose – along with their health plan – a single, convenient pharmacy to fill their prescriptions for controlled substances.” This eliminates the possibility of “drugstore shopping,” or “the practice of filling prescriptions for controlled substances...at multiple drugstores to avoid detection.” A recent HHS OIG report called for such an approach. A second option would be to “close the loophole in Medicare that prevents Part D plans from suspending payments to pharmacies suspected of fraud or diversion.” A second HHS OIG report outlined the benefits of this potential reform.
Neurologists Urge Caution With Opioids For Non-Cancer Use.
The Los Angeles Times (10/2, Healy) reports that patients on opioid painkillers for chronic pain unrelated to cancer, such as headaches, may face a situation where the risks of taking the medications outweigh the benefits. The paper notes that patients “are more likely to risk overdose, addiction and a range of debilitating side effects than they are to improve their ability to function,” citing the American Academy of Neurologists. In a new position statement released Wednesday, the group warned that even for patients “who do appear to benefit from opioid narcotics,” doctors “who prescribe these drugs should be diligent in tracking a patient’s dose increases” and should insist as a condition of continued use “that opioids are improving a patient’s function.”
Abuse-Resistant Version Of Controversial Painkiller Unveiled.
The Wall Street Journal (10/2, Burton, Subscription Publication) reports, Zogenix Inc., the maker of the controversial opioid painkiller Zohydro ER (hydrocodone bitartrate), disclosed Wednesday it filed an application with the FDA for a modified version of the medication that it says would be harder to abuse. According to the firm, the new version will be a capsule containing a gel, making it more difficult to snort or inject. Still, some doctors noted that it could be abused by addicts, who could choose to orally ingest the contents.
