Pharmaceutical companies are making billions off of opioids that are supposed to be “snort-proof.”
These new drugs, called abuse-deterrent formulations (ADFs), are designed to be harder to crush and dissolve so that they cannot be injected or snorted as easily. The pills, naturally, can still be swallowed and thus abused.
“If we’ve learned one lesson from the last 20 years on opioids it’s that these products have very, very high inherent risks,” Dr. Caleb Alexander, co-director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness, told the New York Post. “My concern is that they’ll contribute to a perception that there is a safe opioid, and there’s no such thing as a fully safe opioid.”
Tamper-resistant pills, though, are not the only ADF opioids being introduced to the medicine market. (RELATED: Opioid Crisis Causes US Drug Czar To Come Up With New Ideas)
There are new pills that can apparently irritate users when snorted, and certain injectable drugs contain substances that counteract some of the psycho-active effects.
Drug manufacturers are spending millions of dollars lobbying against state laws aimed at restricting the amount of prescription opioids. They are also lobbying for legislation in statehouses and Congress that would require the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to replace older formulas of opioids with newer drugs, according to the New York Post. This could potentially benefit the anti-abuse opioid initiatives, but also the pharmaceutical companies in the process.
It’s essentially a multibillion dollar window of opportunity for pharmaceutical companies, but could also simultaneously combat some of the abusive practices that contribute to the opioid epidemic (albeit, with minimal results.) (RELATED: Four Young Children Left In Home For Days After Parents Died From Apparent Drug Overdose)
“We at Purdue make certain that prescribers and other stakeholders understand that opioids with abuse-deterrent properties won’t stop all prescription drug abuse, but they are an important part of the comprehensive approach needed to address this public health issue,” Robert Josephson, a spokesman for the pharmaceutical company Purdue, told the New York Post.
There is no conclusive evidence yet that these drugs will reduce the rates of addiction, abuse or death.
There is evidence that America consumes way too many opioids. America makes up 5 percent of the world’s population, but consumes 80 percent of the global opioid supply.
So while this may not reduce consumption, it could perhaps reduce dangerous consumption. Nevertheless, ADFs are still relatively in a nascent stage of development and testing.
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