Who Is Winning the Fight Against Opioid Abuse?

A recent survey found approximately 23.5 million Americans are addicted to drugs and alcohol

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The extent of the opioid epidemic in the U.S. is so pervasive that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that around 23.5 million Americans, aged 12 or older, are addicted to drugs and alcohol.

In 2007, the American public spent nearly $200 billion in health care, criminal justice, legal and lost workplace production and participation costs due to drug addiction, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). It is estimated the annual cost to the U.S. health care system from illegal drugs amounts to $11 billion per year and the economic cost is pegged at $193 billion annually. In addition, alcohol abuse costs taxpayers an estimated $223 billion in health care costs and lost productivity.

Combined, alcohol and illegal drug abuse is now a huge burden on the U.S. economy, estimated to total at least 17.1% of the annual federal budget. The direct health care expenses for alcohol, tobacco, illegal and prescription drugs are estimated to be $137 billion per year, while total economic cost, including crime and lost productivity, could reach more than $600 billion annually.

Brady Granier, president, CEO and director of BioCorRx Inc. (BICX, Financial), commented on the serious problem drug and alcohol abuse has become in the U.S.

“It’s not just the health care system that is impacted. The problem needs to solved, but in order to do that, we need more prevention initiatives and better treatment options for individuals wanting treatment," Granier said. "Perhaps the biggest issue in regards to treatment, is getting those that actually need help into treatment. With only about 10% of those with a problem getting treatment, more needs to be done to encourage the other 90% to get help. With the growth of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and outpatient programs, there are more options available to those that want help.”

MAT is the combination of medications and counseling to treat alcohol and opioid addictions. The most common medications used in MAT are methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone. Suboxone is a well-known brand name in the buprenorphine space. Revia and Vivitrol are brand names for certain naltrexone products. Unfortunately, some anti-opioid abuse medications available in the market are suspected of causing more health complications and sometimes death, especially if prescribed by unscrupulous doctors.

Is there a dark side to buprenorphine

British multinational consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (LSE:RB., Financial), with about $55.22 billion in capitalization, developed buprenorphine in the 1960s as a treatment for moderate pain. In 2000, Reckitt Benckiser was allowed to sell the drug to treat patients with opiate dependency in combination with naloxone.

In 2002, after a long and laborious fight, Reckitt Benckiser convinced Congress to give it a seven-year “orphan drug” patent for Suboxone, the brand name for buprenorphine, making the drug a first-line treatment for opioid abuse. Federal funds were poured into the development of Suboxone and it was marketed as a safe anti-opioid dependency drug. For the effort, Reckitt Benckiser earned $1.55 billion in the U.S. alone on Suboxone sales in 2012.

Developed as a long-term treatment for opioid abuse and a painkiller, buprenorphine is an opioid itself that can trigger dependency and even euphoria similar to the effects of prescription drugs like acetaminophen/oxycodone (Percocet) or oxycodone (OxyContin). SAMHSA said the effect of buprenorphine and the risk of addiction and abuse are less likely and even less deadly however.

Since its sales began in 2002, Suboxone has been faced with controversy as several critics of the drug describe buprenorphine as having evolved both as medication and recreational drug. The drug, while reporting some success in the fight against opioid abuse, has also opened the door to unscrupulous individuals and has even resulted in death.

In a New York Times article, Shawn Verrill of South Berwick, Maine, recalled in an interview at a federal prison in Otisville, New York how his friend, Miles Malone, died in 2010 after taking Suboxone.

“I didn’t know you could overdose on Suboxone,” Verrill said. “We were just a bunch of friends getting high and hanging out, doing what 20-year-olds do. Then we went to sleep, and Miles never woke up.”

Dr. Robert Newman, a leading advocate of methadone treatment, commented about buprenorphine in the same article, “The safety factor should not be oversold. It is diverted and sold on the black market. It is misused, and it does lead to medically adverse consequences, including death. It is associated with a large number of deaths.”

Reckitt Benckiser, the maker of Suboxone, is also at the center of a massive antitrust lawsuit that was filed in a federal court in Philadelphia in September last year, accusing the company of “destroying the drug” in a bid to maintain its chokehold on the market.

The 92-page complaint identified 35 states and the District of Columbia as plaintiffs, questioning Reckitt Benckiser's move to spin off Indivior and a third company called MonoSol RX by allegedly using a series of “deceptive and unconscionable” practices to profit from drug addiction treatment.

The charge sheet accused the company of “product hopping” by making minor tweaks on a product without actual development to apply for a new patent with the aim of keeping its market share on said product, particularly Suboxone.

Naltrexone gaining popularity as opioid antagonist, inhibitor

Approved by the Food and Drug Administration for opioid addiction in 1984, naltrexone is a pure opioid antagonist. Clinical tests have shown naltrexone is effective in reducing or completely reversing and blocking the effects of intravenously administered opioids.

Indeed, law enforcement agencies, including medical first responders, have been looking at the potential of naltrexone as an anti-drug and alcohol abuse treatment. Prison systems across the U.S. have started opioid abuse rehabilitation treatment programs using injectable naltrexone as the preferred method.

The West Virginia Division of Corrections announced late last year that it has started offering Vivitrol, a monthly injection of naltrexone, to its soon-to-be-released inmates to prevent relapse once they are released and back in their former environment.

Vivitrol is manufactured by Alkermes PLC (ALKS, Financial), a $8 billion pharmaceutical company that sells the drug for $1,300 per shot. Naltrexone is being described as a wonder drug by some in the treatment of opioid addiction, although critics are skeptical about its effectiveness.

Barr Laboratories, a subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA, Financial), is also selling naltrexone under the brand name Revia.

BioCorRx is developing its own injectable naltrexone called BICX101. Of the drug, Granier said, “We believe that sustained release naltrexone products such as BICX101 will become the gold standard of long-term addiction treatment and relapse prevention, especially once more efficient detox protocols and products are standardized such as the IHS BRIDGE device.”

BioCorRx plans to seek FDA approval via a New Drug Application.

DISCLOSURE: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I am receiving compensation from BioCorRx for the article.

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