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   OxyContin that's harder to abuse? FDA debates new version
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ContributorServo 
Last EditedServo  May 02, 2008 10:38am
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MediaWebsite - Yahoo News
News DateFriday, May 2, 2008 04:00:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionThe government is evaluating a new version of OxyContin — the potent painkiller sometimes called "hillbilly heroin" — designed to be harder to abuse.

A plastic-like coating fuses to the tablet, making it harder to crush — and turning into a gooey mess if abusers try to inject it, maker Purdue Pharma LP said in documents released by the Food and Drug Administration Thursday.

The FDA will ask its scientific advisers on Monday if the reformulated drug seems tamper-resistant enough to allow on the market, before the required long-term studies are done to see if the changes thwart at least some abuse.

"These are clearly difficult questions for which there are no easy answers," Dr. Bob Rappaport, FDA's chief of painkilling drugs, wrote the advisory panel.

OxyContin was hailed as a breakthrough in the treatment of severe chronic pain when it was introduced in 1996. A time-release version of the old narcotic oxycodone, it was designed to be swallowed whole and digested over 12 hours to keep a steady state of the painkiller in the bodies of seriously ill patients.

But abusers rapidly discovered the tablets can produce a heroin-like high if crushed and snorted or injected, thus dumping the dose all at once instead of letting it seep in slowly.
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