Pharmaceutical executives began to develop plans to discourage the abuse of prescription painkillers as regulators labor to stop an increasing number of fatal overdoses.
A number of pharmaceutical companies including Johnson & Johnson and King Pharmaceuticals are looking to develop medication guides for patients and provide addition training to doctors to prevent inappropriate prescription of painkillers.
The Food and Drug Administration has demanded 16 drugs companies begin risk management programs for their drugs. They’re working together to develop a join proposal to the FDA.
Among the drugs produced by the companies in question are the commonly abused morphine, oxycodone and methadone. These are perhaps the three most dangerous of the 24 opiate drugs being put on the market by the companies. three among 24 total opiate drugs.
This will be the first time the FDA has required a risk management plan for an entire class of drugs. Some worry the mandatory program will prevent physicians from prescribing the drugs, making them harder to get for patients who really need them.
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