FDA Crushes the Crushers

Good news from the Food and Drug Administration as reported by the Associated Press health writer, Matthew Perrone.  If you follow the OMCA newsletters, you are well aware of the many dangers from OxyContin abuse as we have sounded this alarm early and often.

Drug abusers learned that an intense high could be realized by crushing OxyContin and then injecting/snorting an entire dose at once.  Purdue Pharma, to their credit, developed a tamper-resistant version of the pain pill.  Unfortunately, Purdue’s patent was scheduled to expire and the FDA feared that generic versions, without the tamper-resistant formulation, would quickly flood the market.  Not so fast says the FDA who will now require any generic version to also include abuse deterrent quality.

Thats the good news.  On the not so good side, OxyContin will still be around and now Purdue Pharma will have a high priced monopoly for the near future.  Remember, OxyContin sales are about $3 billion per year and Big Pharma paid fines of $634 million several years ago to settle charges of misleading the public about the safety of OxyContin.

But for today, the FDA is doing better even though it will be expensive to Work Comp and Group Medical payors.

Call Us. We can do better.

William V. Faris, JD

Chief Executive Officer
502-495-5040
wiliam.faris@omca.biz
www.omca.biz