There is a new painkiller on the market. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved Pfizer’s Oxetca which is intended to stave off pain for patients, but will be less addictive and more out of reach of pain medication abusers. Oxetca is the first immediate-release oxycodone HCl medicine that applies technology designed to discourage common methods of tampering associated with opioid abuse and misuse.

New Aversion Technology is a unique composition of commonly used pharmaceutical ingredients intended to make opiates less addictive to consumers.

Olivier Brandicourt, Pfizer president and general manager, Primary Care stated:

“We recognize our responsibility to physicians and patients and remain committed to appropriate access to pain treatment and developing medicines to potentially address this important public health and safety issue. Oxecta will further expand Pfizer’s presence in pain management and complements our growing, robust portfolio of treatments and medicines in development for pain relief, one of our strategic, high-priority disease areas. We are pleased to bring Oxecta to patients and physicians with our partner Acura.”

Pfizer will be working with Acura Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in research, development and commercialization of product candidates intended to potentially deter abuse and misuse.

Opioid medications are an important treatment option for patients with moderate to severe pain who are not adequately managed by other pain treatments. However, abuse and misuse of opioids is a serious public health issue that is the focus of a number of recent United States government initiatives.

Robert Jones, interim president and chief executive officer of Acura Pharmaceuticals added:

“We are excited to be partnered with Pfizer to bring OXECTA to patients who need opioids to manage their pain. Acura is focused on developing technologies that are intended to potentially deter abuse and misuse.”

Here’s a little history about opioids and their presence in the human existence over time:

Opioids are the most powerful known pain relievers. Their use and abuse date back to antiquity. The pain relieving and euphoric effects of opioids were known to Sumerians (4000 BC) and Egyptians (2000 BC).

International awareness of opioid abuse was stimulated early in the 20th century when President Theodore Roosevelt convened the Shanghai Opium Commission in 1909 to aid the Chinese empire in stamping out opioid addiction, especially opium smoking.

In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson’s administration drafted legislation to limit the use of narcotics, requiring prescription in good faith; this became effective in 1915. Legitimate providers of narcotics and cocaine preparations were required to register with the Bureau of Internal Revenue and were mandated to keep records of transactions.

In 1917, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was interpreted by the courts in such a way that opioids could not be prescribed for the treatment of opioid addiction.

In the 1960s, Dole and Nyswander demonstrated that methadone was an effective treatment for opioid addiction.

In 1974, the Narcotic Addict Treatment Act allowed regulated methadone treatment for opioid addiction, but made off-label use of opioids illegal.

In 2000, the Drug Addiction Treatment Act (DATA) allowed qualified physicians to use Schedule III, IV, or V drugs for the treatment of opioid dependence. Buprenorphine is currently the only drug approved under DATA.

Sources: Medscape, Acura Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer

Written by Sy Kraft