Last updated : November 18, 2024
A new pain-killer drug called Zohydro could cause another addiction epidemic according to professionals.
The drug as it is known today is leaving the marketplace and could be replaced by another that has tampered resistant qualities. The change would prevent or reduce misuse of the drug. In less than a year, Zohydro went from a new pain-killer to being a product sold to another company.
“Designed to release painkilling medication slowly into the body over a 12-hour period, Zohydro is available in doses as high as 50 milligrams – five times the amount found in similar immediate-release hydrocodone pill,” Fox News reported.
The drug uses a long-used drug called hydrocodone. Usually, the hydrocodones were combined with other drugs, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol), or ibuprofen (Advil) marketed.
The difference is that Zohydro is time-released, while the other doses are administered in various strengths and repeated a set number of hours, depending upon the strength of the drug, severity of pain and the patient’s medical history.
The FDA states that Zohydro is “for the management of pain severe enough to require daily, around-the-clock, long-term opioid treatment.”
While the manufacturer cannot market the drug for any other use except for chronic pain relief, doctors are allowed to prescribe it to any patient they deem appropriate.
A Consumer Reports story note, “Every day, people participating in the study were asked to rate the severity of their pain.
At the study’s conclusion, it was revealed that people taking Zohydro felt only slightly better than those who received a sugar pill.
People who took Zohydro ER also reported that the drug didn’t help them with improved function.
Surprisingly, if people took Zohydro, it did not reduce their need to use other pain relievers to treat flare-ups of pain.
Test groups taking Zohydro ER, and those who received a placebo, wound up needing additional pain medications about seven out of every 10 days.
Furthermore, the study found that about one-third of people who took a placebo pill instead of Zohydro ER experienced at least moderate pain relief.
The concern may, for the moment, may be a moot point. The drug is going to be off the market, at least for a while.
According to a press release, “Zogenix has taken plenty of heat over Zohydro, the all-hydrocodone painkiller that critics say is too easy for opioid addicts to abuse. However, under a deal announced on Tuesday, those critics will no longer be the San Diego company’s concern.
Zogenix is shipping off Zohydro, as well as well as R&D projects for follow-up, abuse-deterrent versions to New Jersey’s Pernix Therapeutics, in exchange for $100 million up front and up to $283.5 million in milestones. And with that, Zogenix is dipping out of the pain field altogether.”
The release adds, “But the Pernix force will have its work cut out for it. While the FDA has approved a tamper-resistant version of Zohydro, it won’t be able to use abuse deterrence as a selling point until the company submits further data for a label update. This was something Zogenix said it was planning for the second half of this year.
