Drug Cos. on Curbing Painkiller Abuse

(CBS/AP)  Pharmaceutical executives are laying out plans to prevent the misuse of prescription painkillers, under pressure from regulators trying to prevent hundreds of fatal overdoses each year.

Johnson & Johnson, King Pharmaceuticals and other drugmakers want to use patient medication guides, letters to doctors and additional physician training to curb inappropriate use and prescribing of painkillers.

The Food and Drug Administration sent letters to 16 drugmakers in February ordering them to design so-called risk management plans for their drugs.

The companies are now presenting their joint proposal to the agency.

The companies produce 24 opioid drugs - including morphine, oxycodone and methadone - which are often abused for their euphoric effect.

Last month, the FDA announced it was launching a Safe Use Initiative , a program to try and prevent millions of accidental drug overdoses that occur each year due to medication errors, misuse and other problems.

The FDA says medication errors send 4 million Americans to the emergency room each year, resulting in 117,000 hospitalizations.


For more info:
Opioid Drugs and Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) (FDA)
Fact Sheet: Safe Use Initiative (FDA)
Drug Safety Newsletter (FDA, 11.09)

[PersonInPain]

I'm in my mid 30's, and I have been taking fast acting oxycodone for some time now. I have set times I take it every day and dont mess with my schedule. The pills I take are 15mg which is no small dose, but nothing that puts me in any euphoric state. I'm also a stay at home father now because of my injuries. I have been through everything, surguries, Phys. Therapy, acupuncture etc. I've taking other stronger drugs like morphine, oxycotin etc, all time released and prescribed, but nothing, so far works for me like what I take now. The reason I'm telling all this is because I have a 4 year old boy that needs me to be a father to him every day no matter what I feel like, and all this talk lately about the FDA and the drug companies Worries me. I have been off the medication on several occasions and was unable to do much physically. If I am unable to get the medication that helps me live a fairly normal life then what? I have also tried weed and it just isn't for me, nothing against it, just not for me. I think the FDA and drug companies will actually make it worse if they make it hard for people to get the meds they need, because then some people will try to buy meds illegally and then get turned on to "bigger and better" drugs, not all people, but some. Just my opinion, please don't bash me for it.

[RAlady]

I have Rheumatoid arthritis and would no longer be able to do my job if it weren't for vicodin. I follow my doc's instructions and don't misuse it, I'll take my chances as far as any side effects go, and that should be my choice.
I've had people offer me up to $10 per pill for them, but I don't sell them. The people who are abusing these drugs will just replace them with something else.
Why not realize that people, not companies, are responsible for the abuse of these medications?

[liverdrma_]

Now let me tell you what they are doing with these drugs.They are crushing them down,puting them in a spoon and mixing it with just enough water to soak the powder down.Then they take a piece of cotton and draw it up through a syringe. And shooting it up through their veins.Hense,oxicodone,

[MatterofLiberty]

Maybe doctors shold start prescribing less medicines that have risk for overdose. That should pretty much reduce most of the problem right? Now lets see... if only we had some other substance that could allieviate most of the pain with few side effects and help you forget about your sickness and that was impossible to have a lethal overdose on... Medical Cannabis comes to mind.

[rubysdad98]

Dear "MatterofLiberty", why would the DEA want to stop spending Billions of dollars pursuing and locking up people who dare use the Schedule One substance Cannabis? Just look at how many deaths the evil weed causes every year, that number would go way up if it was legal- Oh, wait. There aren't any recorded deaths from cannabis, never mind.

[unshrub]

The people leaving most of these comments should be ashamed of themselves for being so ignorant.

[Dallasmx]

Here's ignorance - Someone who thinks that telling doctors to be more careful, and drug companies to send out dosing guides would make one iota's difference in the amount of people abusing painkillers. The fox is guarding the hen house folks. If you think I'm wrong, watch TV. Drug companies begging you to go to your doctor and ask him to prescribe a powerful psycho-active drug because you feel "out of sorts". And it takes a LOT to fatally overdose. You don't do that taking a few extra pills by accident.

[SkirtsLifter]

by charlie7222 December 4, 2009 2:13 PM EST
Especially when "responsibility" is the platform of a fat *********** loud mouth pig.
_____________
Charlie calling someone a fat (whatever) loud mouth pig, is pure irony ... whew ... when you Charlie are, as Moroni said in Johnny Dangerously, "the biggest farging icehole of them all!"

[nowhiningallowed]

It's too easy for people to get these drugs after having gotten addicted to them. Doctors over prescribe the quantities and refills. I hate the way pain medication makes me feel out of control and numb. I hate pain, but sometimes if it's not too debilitating, I'll forgo the meds to maintain being in control and not having to artificially rely on a chemical.

[I_am_me1953]

Pain is good.

It reminds you that you are alive.

[hillbillyvol]

It is about FORKING time something is done. The FDA has spent several years with their fingers up their collective arses on this one. Capitalism at it's finest.

[worldcitizen1]

The bad part is that it will make it harder to get for those who really need these drugs to get them!