FDA Safety Program Failed to Restrict Access to Deadly Opioids (1)

The FDA and opioid manufacturers allowed potentially deadly prescriptions to go through when they dropped the ball on monitoring a small class of highly potent opioids, according to a JAMA study.

The findings published in the Feb. 19 Journal of the American Medical Association stem from an analysis of a safety monitoring program for a highly potent type of synthetic opioid called transmucosal immediate release fentanyl (TIRF). These TIRFs are only supposed to be given to cancer patients who are already on other opioids to manage short, breakthrough pain when their normal painkillers aren’t working, according to the Food and ...