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Q: I heard that Oxycontin is being taken off the market. Is this true?

A: Apparently that is true. At some point in early 2012, the company that makes Oxycontin will begin to phase it out.  How that will be done has not been spelled out yet to the best of our knowledge, but it will be replaced by a new formulation called OxyNeo.  

Given the surge in usage by both those with legitimate need for pain killers and those without (a recent study reported that one per cent of Ontario students reported abusing this drug), something had to be done. But just banning the drug altogether comes with significant downsides for many people.  

The way people respond to medications varies greatly depending upon their genetic makeup. There are people with huge pain issues - cancer, degenerative discs, etc. - who find that oxycodone (the active ingredient in Oxycontin) works better for them than any other analgesic and to deny them access to this because others are abusing it, is simply not fair. The solution the industry has come up with is OxyNeo.  

OxyNeo will have the same active ingredient but it will be made so that it is more difficult to break. This is significant because Oxycontin abusers often chew the tablet or crush it into a powder to be snorted so that they get the entire dose at once rather than delivered slowly as the pill would normally do.  

The new drug is also designed to turn into a gummy gel when exposed to water or alcohol making it much more difficult to dissolve and then draw up into a syringe. 

While OxyNeo is very similar to Oxycontin, there are some differences. The new drug takes slightly longer to achieve peak levels in the blood which might be perceived as being less effective, and it also reaches a little higher level in the blood which may cause some users to experience more side effects.  

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Sunday, January 22, 2012