Creating better tamper-resistant drugs could impede someone from “taking a longer-acting version and breaking it down into a much more toxic soup for other purposes,” Carpenter says. However, he concedes it won’t be impossible to swallow one or more pills too many, leading to this very common form of pharmaceutical abuse.
The FDA is accepting public comment on the draft guidance, while encouraging further scientific and clinical research to advance the development and assessment of abuse-deterrent technologies.
Susan Kreimer is a freelance writer based in New York.