FDA Panel Questions 'Safer' OxyContin Version

The manufacturers of the painkilling drug OxyContin claim they have come up with a harder-to-abuse version of the pill, but a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel wants more testing to make sure. Purdue Pharma claims that adding a coating to the tablets will make them harder to crush so that they cannot be snorted or injected.

OcyContin, which is a time-release version of oxycodone, releases it's painkilling effects over a 12-hour period. But if it is crushed then snorted or injected it can produce a heroin-like high, leading to its nickname, "Hillbilly Heroin."

Purdue Pharma claims its planned plastic-like coating will make abusing the drug more difficult, but the FDA panel wants to see more testing to determine if the new version is actually tamper proof as advertised.

More Information:

• Painkiller Abuse Increasing Among Older Adults
  
• Basic Facts About OxyContin
  
• A Prescription for Teen Danger

^{Photo: © DEA}

^{Source: The Associated Press. Proposed new version of OxyContin questioned. May 5, 2008.}