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In a highly controversial move, the Food and Drug Administration approved an especially powerful opioid painkiller despite criticism that the medicine could be a “danger” to public health. And in doing so, the agency addressed wider regulatory thinking for endorsing such a medicine amid nationwide angst about overdoses and deaths attributed to opioids.

The drug is called Dsuvia, which is a tablet version of an opioid marketed for intravenous delivery, but is administered under the tongue using a specially developed, single-dose applicator. These “unique features” make the medicine well-suited for the military and therefore was a priority for the Pentagon, a point that factored heavily into the decision, according to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.

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  • I agree. This drug should not be approved. Sorry surgery patients and cancer patients that are still undertreated for pain. We need to focus on the 2% of the population thar abuses drugs so you’ll have to suffer. With our efforts to reduce and control the use of pharmaceutical opioids we’ve cut … Ok no the death from opioids has increased but any day now our plan will work just like every war on drugs. Success is just around the corner.

  • Yet the FDA sent a CRL for Trevena’s Oliceridine, a druge that is safe and more efficacious than morphine. Makes absolutely no sense. Oh well, I guess thats the world we live in.

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