FDA Chief Says Agency Must Do More to Stop Abuse of Opioids
- Regulator to require drugmakers to offer prescriber education
- Immediate-release opioids make up 90 percent of prescriptions
FDA Makes Opioid Abuse a Top Priority
This article is for subscribers only.
The U.S.’s top drug regulator said on Monday that more must be done to stem the country’s tide of opioid addiction, proposing new guidelines and restrictions on some of the most widely used pain pills.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb laid out plans to have drugmakers conduct doctor education programs on immediate-release opioids, which account for 90 percent of the 200 million opioid painkiller prescriptions written in the U.S. each year. The agency is also exploring whether pain-management training should be required for doctors as well as nurses, pharmacists or other health-care providers.