Opioids

Major health care and drug industry stakeholders are concerned the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA's) proposal to cut manufacturing quotas for certain opioids by 10 percent could exacerbate drug shortages and have a negative effect on patients with a legitimate need for opioids.

In a study of more than 1,600 people injured in traffic accidents, researchers discovered that people with a certain variant of the stress-controlling gene FKBP5 were more likely to develop chronic pain than those with other variants -- a finding that could help pinpoint new non-addictive strategies for preventing or controlling chronic pain, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins wrote in an NIH Directors Blog post on Tuesday (Sept. 4).

Senate Republicans have cleared the Senate opioid package and are now awaiting for Democrats to clear it on their side, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said at a press conference Tuesday (Aug. 28).

FDA has contracted the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to conduct a consensus study and issue a report on what evidence is needed to ensure clinical practice guidelines for opioid prescribing for acute pain are sufficient and how to generate said evidence, agency head Scott Gottlieb announced Wednesday (Aug. 22).

President Donald Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to bring a federal lawsuit against opioid makers and distributors rather than just joining state suits, and to explore ways to stop opioids from coming in from China and Mexico, according to a White House press pool report from Thursday (Aug. 16).

A veterinary pain management expert is concerned about potential lack of access to opioids in the veterinary medicine space that could be caused by attempts to curb the opioid epidemic.

Marijuana policy reform groups, in comments sent to FDA, highlight the potential for medical marijuana to help curb the opioid epidemic, mainly by giving patients with chronic pain an alternative to opioids and helping to reduce prescribing rates.

FDA in a draft guidance published Monday (Aug. 6) lays out new types of endpoints -- beyond complete abstinence from drug use -- that can be used to develop and assess the efficacy of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder and be included on product labeling.

Chronic pain patients, patient representatives and caregivers lambasted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s opioid prescribing guidelines at an FDA meeting Monday (July 9), saying the guidelines have caused doctors to be reluctant to prescribe opioids and have led to patients being involuntarily weaned off much-needed medications.