Oxycodone That Can't Be Abused or Misused

A new long-acting version of oral oxycodone incorporates features that prevent recreational use, prescription abuse, or accidental misuse.

Called Remoxy, the pain medication is now in clinical trials designed to confirm anti-abuse studies and pharmacokinetic studies. Abusers can easily extract the full dose of oxycodone from currently marketed time-release preparations, which provides abusers with a fast and powerful morphine-like high. In 2002, oxycodone abuse resulted in more than 20,000 visits to emergency rooms and hundreds of deaths.

The new drug was developed by Pain Therpeutics, Inc. (South San Francisco, CA, USA). Remoxy incorporates deterrent properties and offers the convenience of twice-a-day dosing. Tests indicate that crushing or physically manipulating Remoxy does not defeat its time-release mechanism. The drug can also resist extraction by acids or alcohol for hours at a time by entrapping a majority of the oxycodone inside its proprietary formulation. Under a license agreement, Remoxy is formulated with the Saber technology of Durect Corp. (Cupertino, CA, USA). Saber is a patented technology based on sucrose acetate isobutyrate, a high-viscosity biodegradable liquid matrix that forms the basis for a number of different drugs.

"As oxycodone abuse has no national barriers, we continue to envision Remoxy as a safe, effective and reliable alternative to time-release oxycodone both in the U.S. and abroad,” noted Remi Barbier, president and CEO of Pain Therapeutics.




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Pain Therapeutics