“The head of the Food and Drug Administration wants Congress — and doctors — to know there is a real treatment solution for the opioid epidemic: medication-assisted treatment (MAT).
In testimony to the House on Wednesday, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said that his agency plans to leverage the use of medications for opioid addiction, including methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone, to confront America’s drug overdose crisis.
“There’s a wealth of information supporting the use of these medications,” Gottlieb said, according to STAT. “We’re focusing on the data in the drug labeling that can help drive broader and appropriate prescribing. So one concept that FDA is actively pursuing is the research necessary to support a label indication for medication-assisted treatment for everyone who presents with an overdose, based on data showing a reduction in death at a broader population-level. Such an effort would be a first for FDA.”
As the nation’s primary drug regulator, the FDA can push doctors to make greater use of some medications — by, for example, tinkering with drug labeling to combat stigma attached to certain drugs. Based on Gottlieb’s remarks to Congress, that seems to be the goal here.”
Read more at: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/25/16545302/fda-gottlieb-mat-opioid-epidemic
The statement can be accessed at: https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm582031.htm
Source: Vox.com – October 25, 2017
