New Deterrent Opioids on State’s Radar

A bill introduced this week in the state Legislature encourages prescription of a type of opioid medication newly on the market that might discourage some forms of drug abuse.

AB 623 by Assembly member Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) will make it easier for providers to prescribe “abuse-deterrent formulation” opioids instead of traditional opioids, Wood said.

The bill has several components, all in an effort to curb abuse of narcotics, such as oxycodone and morphine. It would:

• Require pharmacists to counsel patients on the proper storage and disposal of opioids;
• Instruct health insurers to allow providers to prescribe less than a 30-day supply of opioid medication;
• Require insurers to allow use of abuse-deterrent formulation opioids without first failing traditional (and less expensive) opioids; and
• Set a prior authorization process for abuse-deterrent formulation opioids that is the same as traditional opioids.

Several abuse-deterrent formulation opioids have won FDA approval: reformulated Oxycontin (oxycodone); Embeda (morphine combined with naltrexone); Hysingla ER (hydrocodone bitartrate); Zohydro ER (hydrocodone bitartrate); and Targiniq (oxycodone and naloxone), which was approved last year but hasn’t yet been launched.

The idea of these abuse-deterrent drugs is that they lose their euphoric quality when crushed, heated or dissolved, some of the common methods used by drug abusers. The deterrent drug also can be difficult to crush or manipulate.

Assembly member Wood, a practicing dentist, said he has dealt with patients who “doctor-shop” to find someone to prescribe the opioids for them.

“As a dentist, I treated patients with legitimate oral and facial pain,” Wood said in a written statement. “Tragically, I also saw my share of people attempting … to feed an addiction or pattern of abuse. Narcotic pain medications … provide effective relief for the millions of Americans who suffer from chronic pain. But too easily they are getting into the wrong hands.”

The bill will be heard in committee next month.