Amid Opioid Crisis, FDA Approves Deadliest Painkiller Yet
America
is in the midst of the worst opioid epidemic in its history, and what’s
most alarming is that the drugs most complicit in the plague of
addiction and overdoses are perfectly legal and available in most
pharmacies, including cough syrup, fentanyl, oxycodone, and others. Now,
instead of holding back this epidemic, an opioid stronger than anything
we’ve ever known may well be making its way to the market.
Dsuvia is
a powerful painkiller that was approved by the FDA last year for use in
supervised settings, such as ERs, specifically for use in cases of
severe physical trauma, such as a broken bone or gunshot wound.
Just how strong is this stuff?
Dsuvia is about 10 times stronger than fentanyl and 1,000 times more powerful than morphine!
But hold on, if Dsuvia has been approved for hospital use only, then what’s the problem anyway?
The problem is twofold: drug diversion and misprescription, both potentially leading to lethal results.
The problem is twofold: drug diversion and misprescription, both potentially leading to lethal results.
Drug
diversion is the umbrella term for illegal use of legally-prescribed
medicine for any use that is not the one it was intended for. Obtaining
such prescription drugs is achieved by criminals in several ways,
including “doctor shopping” - the act of visiting a doctor with false
health complaints and with the intent of receiving a specific opioid
prescription, theft and forged prescriptions.
Misprescription
is the act of prescribing either the wrong drug or the wrong dose. This
can be especially disastrous in the case of opioids that are extremely
potent and addictive. According to a recent study,
between 35% and 55% of patients that are prescribed fentanyl are
actually opioid intolerant. For reference, fentanyl accounts for about
half of overdose-related deaths in the United States.
Because
Dsuvia comes in small, soluble tablets, medical experts are worried it
will be easier to divert and abuse. And there does not seem to be any
serious medical need for it, either, as the same drug already exists in
hospitals in injectable form.
And one cannot simply ignore
the market forces at play in creating the current health crisis, as drug
manufacturers have every commercial reason to encourage sales by
decreasing costs, advertising the drugs and fiddling with prescription
practices to make the drug easier to obtain. There is no reason to
believe Dsuvia will be any different, as its distribution will be
monitored by the manufacturer, AcelRX.
Dsuvia will be regulated in accordance with the FDA’s REMS (risk evaluation and management strategies) program for the monitoring of high-risk drugs, but before you take a sigh of relief, consider that the lethal fentanyl is also monitored by the same program, proving REM’s limited efficacy in stopping the abuse of dangerous opioids.
Dsuvia will be regulated in accordance with the FDA’s REMS (risk evaluation and management strategies) program for the monitoring of high-risk drugs, but before you take a sigh of relief, consider that the lethal fentanyl is also monitored by the same program, proving REM’s limited efficacy in stopping the abuse of dangerous opioids.