Fights cravings
In a first of its kind the pharmaceutical company Braeburn Pharmaceuticals has developed a product, called Probuphine, that is implanted under the inside of an upper arm of the patient. In actuality four small plastic ‘sticks’ are implanted and they are designed to time-release a drug that combats cravings.
The drug released is buprenorphine, an opioid derivative, and over a period of six months it targets the area in the brain that creates the craving for opioid the patient is experiencing.
It works if the addiction is to heroin or another opioid; many opioid addicts are addicted to painkillers, often prescribed by doctors for severe injuries or after a surgical procedure.
Opioid addiction
The medication was previously available only as a pill or as a film placed under the tongue. Under this new method of administrating the medication patients will not have to remember to take it daily and there will be no danger of it being lost or stolen.
“Opioid abuse and addiction have taken a devastating toll on American families. We must do everything we can to make new, innovative treatment options available that can help patients regain control over their lives,” FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D., said in a statement.
“Today’s approval provides the first-ever implantable option to support patients’ efforts to maintain treatment as part of their overall recovery program,” he added.
The company said the wholesale cost of the product, to be sold directly to doctors, is $825 per month. Implanting the ‘sticks’ is a surgical procedure and a program is underway to train doctors to do the implants.
“Probuphine is the first treatment for opioid dependence that provides long-term delivery of an evidence-based medicine,” Richard Rosenthal, Professor of Psychiatry from the Mount Sinai Behavioral Health System said. “Probuphine offers clinically stable patients a new way to continue taking medicine, ensuring the dose prescribed is the dose taken.”
