The FDA, after years of letting lax standards take hold on painkillers, is toughening its stance. Here's why:
Earlier this year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that prescription painkiller overdose deaths among women increased about fivefold between 1999 and 2010. Among men, such deaths rose about 3.5-fold. The rise in both death rates is closely tied to a boom in the overall use of prescribed painkillers.
The FDA has long supported the more lax prescribing classification for hydrocodone, which is also backed by professional societies like the American Medical Association.
But the agency’s top drug regulator, Dr. Janet Woodcock, said in a statement Thursday: “The FDA has become increasingly concerned about the abuse and misuse of opioid products, which have sadly reached epidemic proportions in certain parts of the United States.”
In a New York Times article, the shift is portrayed as a victory by legislators over pharmaceutical lobbyists.