FDA Seeks Safer Solutions for Fentanyl Pain Patch Patients

Opioid drugs like the Duragesic pain patch and generic fentanyl pain patches have been the source of grave medical concern as far as abuse and accidental overdose.

Patients have died from absorbing too much fentanyl drugs too fast. Caregivers have died from leaking pain patches. Children have died from being dosed with pain patches that were once prescribed for adults and children and pets have died from eating pain patches that were casually left on the counter or tossed in a waste basket.

You have to wonder if people are simply not being paying attention or pharmacists, drug manufacturers, and healthcare personnel are not adequately warning patients and caregivers about the proper usage and dangers of fentanyl pain patches.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is wondering too. On February 6, 2009, they sent letters to certain opioid drug manufacturers indicating that these drugs like fentanyl pain patch will be required to have a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS). The purpose of this strategy development is to ensure that the fentanyl patch and other opioid drugs are more beneficial than risky.

The FDA and opioid drug manufacturers like fentanyl have come together previously to prevent misuse and abuse but in the past decade, the risks and abuse has risen beyond an acceptable level. The FDA believes there is a need to develop better strategies against abuse and overdose while legitimately serving patients who have the need for chronic pain managements.

Meetings start March 2009 – first with the drug manufacturers, and then later in the year for broader public input.

If a loved one has been the victim, as a patient or caregiver, or a child has eaten a pain patch, contacting a lawyer about an unsafe drug injury or wrongful death lawsuit should be on the top of your list. Negligence is never an option. Contact Anapol Schwartz for your confidential, no-cost, no-obligation consultation.

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