Advisory Committee Shoots Down FDA Long-acting Opioids Proposal

The FDA unveiled its proposal for long-acting painkillers during a meeting held July 22-23 before an advisory committee comprised of doctors and pain experts, but was unsuccessful in seeking approval.

The advisory committee voted 25-10 to reject the plan. The reason: the education component for doctors was not made mandatry in the proposal.

The plan called for voluntary training for doctors that would be organized by pharmaceutical companies. The majoriy of members in the committee felt this would not be a strong enough motivator for doctors to actively enroll in education programs, according to reports by news outlets such as The New York Times.

Representatives from the FDA claimed the concern with adding a mandatroy training component was that the doctors may choose to avoid prescribing the drugs in order to avoid the extra steps involved and instead prescribe other drugs.