Two new drugs are showing promise for treating addiction to opiates — drugs like heroin, morphine, and oxycontin. This week, the FDA approved drugmaker Alkermes Inc.’s Vivitrol for treating heroin addiction. The monthly injection works by blocking the opiate receptors in the brain that cause cravings.
Dr. Ross says Vivitrol is already used to treat alcohol addiction — although The Boston Globe reported last year it’s been something of a commercial flop — and it could also be used to treat addictions to other opiate-containing products such as Percocet and Vicodin. The FDA approved the drug based on company studies showing the typical Vivitrol patient reported drug-free urine samples 90 percent of the time, compared with 35 percent for those not taking the blocker.
Also this week, a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed Titan Pharmaceuticals’ Probuphine implant was effective as an anti-addiction treatment, although more testing must be done before the product can apply for FDA approval. Probuphine is an inch-long rod that’s implanted just below the skin in the arm, where it releases the anti-addiction medication buprenorphine.
“Basically it works just like methadone,” says Dr. Ross. “Methadone is a long-acting opiate analog, and it also does not produce the same high. Addicts who take it every day know they’re not going to get high on any street drugs.”
Dr. Ross says ACSH is interested in these drugs because of their potential for harm reduction. “It’s giving an addictive drug — or supplying a drug with potential to do harm — in order to reduce the greater risk of harm from opiate street drugs. Addicts subject themselves to great risks to their health by injecting these street drugs, in terms of transmitting disease, and of course the desire to use more opiates, which is part of the addiction, leads to crime.”
“Needle sharing is by far the biggest cause of hepatitis C and B transmission, and obviously spreads HIV as well. Additionally, it can cause serious bacterial infections,” ACSH’s Dr. Josh Bloom notes.
