The Food and Drug Administration is succumbing to Big Pharma's influence to keep approving lucrative opioids despite the toll they're taking on American lives, a top official at the agency claims.
Dr Raeford Brown, chair of the FDA's committee for reviewing opioid approvals, told the Guardian the agency is having a 'direct impact on the mortality rate from opioids in this country' by continuing to approve new high-risk drugs.
His words come after the FDA approved a controversial new opioid, Dsuvia, despite its own board of physicians warning the drug is easy to abuse and could cause more deaths.
Dr Brown was one of a number of committee members who, he claims, we deliberately barred from voting on Dsuvia because the in-person vote was scheduled for the same day as a conference that most of them were attending.
The drug's manufacturers and the FDA claim that, since the drug will mainly be administered by doctors in hospital settings, there is a low risk of it reaching the streets.
But Dr Brown warns sufentanil is already known to be abused by doctors and having hospitals as the gatekeeper is no sure-fire way to prevent it reaching the black market.
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1 comment:
Doctors using. I shouldn't be surprised. I've heard that pharmacist abuse drugs. Know of one. He is back working - got his license back.
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