A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee voted last week to reject a proposed plan to reduce the abuse of long-acting painkillers like OxyContin. The panel included physicians and pain experts. It voted 25 to 10 against the plan, saying they did not believe it was strong enough to control the problem.
Most of the panel members voted no because the plan did not have a requirement that physicians receive training in the appropriate use of these medications. There are increasing concerns that the abuse of these drugs by physicians puts patients at risk.
FDA officials had announced a plan urging physicians to receive voluntary training that would be organized by the drug industry. The advisory panel, however, was not convinced.
“They were concerned about the voluntary nature of the training requirements,” said Dr. John K. Jenkins, the director of the office of new drugs at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
At present, a physician must only register with the FDA to prescribe narcotic pain medications. To make training mandatory as a condition of registration would require action by Congress.
