On April 5, U.S. Pain Foundation’s Senior State Advocate, Wendy Foster, flew to D.C. for the joint meeting of the Anesthetics and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee and Drug Safety and Risk Management at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The meeting was held to determine if a new drug met the parameters to be considered an abuse-deterrent formula (ADF).  ADFs are a special type of pain medications that cannot be crushed, snorted, or otherwise manipulated, making them difficult to abuse.

The committee was advisory only, meaning it could advise to send the drug forward toward consideration for approval, decide that it needs further work to achieve ADF properties, or send it back to the manufacturers for a total “re-do.”

Foster spoke to the fact that while no drug is 100 percent abuse-proof, the drug in question was shown to make abuse difficult.

“We at U.S. Pain believe that chronic pain and addiction are both serious diseases, and both need to be addressed,” says Foster. “Safer medications with abuse-deterrent properties and continuing education on these issues are just some of the tools we need in order to combat both addiction and chronic pain.”

Special thanks to senior advocate Wendy Foster for putting together this story.