Abuse-Deterrent Opioids: Where Are They Now?

The commercial market for abuse-deterrent opioids was thought to have blockbuster potential eight years ago, when drug makers started investing heavily in the therapeutic space on the heels of FDA's approval of an abuse-deterrent formulation of Purdue Pharma LP's big seller OxycontinXR (oxycodone). Flash forward to 2018 and the millions of dollars invested in the development of abuse-deterrent opioids appears to have gone up in smoke.

Back in 2010, pharma did not foresee the road blocks ahead, banking on the assumption that in the face of an opioid addiction crisis, the US FDA, payers and physicians would welcome the arrival of new opioids that are harder to abuse