Purdue earns a nod--and a quick slap--for abuse-resistant painkiller

The FDA has approved a new pain drug from Purdue Pharma that's intended to throw up a line of defense against the abuse of an extended-release reformulation of OxyContin. But all the approval seems to have accomplished is triggering some added eye-rolling from some of the experts fighting abuse.

The new drug is Targiniq, which pairs oxycodone with naloxone. Crush it and snort it, once a common recreational high, and the naloxone--a drug used to counter opioid overdoses--blocks the euphoric high that addicts are after. That should help prevent that kind of abuse, notes the FDA, but it's no panacea as most addicts these days get their high by swallowing pills whole. And that will still be the preferred form of abusing Targiniq.

Dr. Andrew Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, told the LA Times that the new drug amounted to little more than a "gimmick" that will have no real-world impact. Turning around the epidemic of abuse, he said, needs to focus on prescribing habits.

"If we really want to turn this epidemic around, the most important thing is to stop creating new cases of addiction," he told the Times. "Coming up with new gimmicks isn't going to help."

Pain drug abuse has been a big issue in the drug development business for years. And the controversy revived once again after the FDA recently OK'd Zohydro from Zogenix, a pure form of hydrocodone that hit the market without any tamper resistance built in. Now Zogenix is scrambling to advance its abuse-resistant version of the drug as Purdue, Teva ($TEVA) and Pfizer ($PFE) all hustle along new-and-improved versions of their own that are likely to muscle aside Zohydro--which was met with widespread dismay by public health officials from coast-to-coast.

This newly approved painkiller from Purdue may not be perfect, but the FDA will take what it can get.

"The FDA is committed to combatting the misuse and abuse of all opioids, and the development of opioids that are harder to abuse is needed in order to help address the public health crisis of prescription drug abuse in the U.S.," said Sharon Hertz, deputy director of the Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Addiction Products in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in a statement. "Encouraging the development of opioids with abuse-deterrent properties is just one component of a broader approach to reducing abuse and misuse, and will better enable the FDA to balance addressing this problem with meeting the needs of the millions of people in this country suffering from pain."

- here's the LA Times story