FDA Approves New Potent Opioid 'Dsuvia'

Introduction

Amidst the opioid addiction crisis, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a new opioid for use called Dsuvia. It has been approved for use in wounded soldiers carried off the battlefield who does not have intravenous access for an injection or drip or for someone who cannot swallow medicine.

It is a massive relief for American soldiers who are in terrible pain due to the lack of usable opioids. Dsuvia contains sufentanil which is a synthetic opioid and 10 times more powerful as fentanyl. It is also 1,000 times stronger than morphine. The Drug Enforcement Administration released a report highlighting the overdose deaths caused due to prescription opioids since 2001. On October 12, the FDA's Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee voted 10-3 for Dsuvia to be recommended as an alternative medication to currently available opioids. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told in a statement, "There are very tight restrictions being placed on the distribution and use of this product. We've learned much from the harmful impact that other oral opioid products can have in the context of the opioid crisis. We've applied those hard lessons as part of the steps we're taking to address safety concerns for Dsuvia." Pamela Palmer, an anesthesiologist stated, “The FDA approval of Dsuvia is the culmination of nearly 15 years of research to improve the standard of care for managing acute pain in medically supervised settings.”

Opioid overdose death lawsuits are centralized as a part of multidistrict litigation, MDL No. 2804 (In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation) in the Northern District of Ohio before U.S. District Judge Dan A. Polster. The first bellwether trial in the litigation has been scheduled for September 3, 2019.

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