FDA reconsiders training requirements for painkillers
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Food and Drug Administration is reconsidering whether doctors who prescribe painkillers like OxyContin should be required to take safety training courses, according to federal documents.
A panel of FDA advisers meets next week to review risk-management plans put in place nearly four years ago to reduce misuse and abuse of long-acting painkillers, powerful opioids frequently abused for their euphoric effects.
Under the current risk programs, drugmakers fund voluntary training for physicians in safely prescribing their medications. However, many experts — including a previous panel of FDA advisers — said the measures didn't go far enough and that physician training should be mandatory.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The FDA will ask outside safety experts on Tuesday what changes should be made to improve the risk plans, according to briefing documents posted Friday.