From
ABC News:
When the oxycodone brand called OxyContin was introduced in the late 1990s, its maker claimed that the drug's controlled-release mechanism would make it less likely to be abused.
The idea was that if it released its opioid slowly, rather than all at once, abusers wouldn't find the immediate rush they crave.
But it didn't take long for drug seekers to devise a workaround that foiled that plan.
Chewing the tablet, crushing it, or dissolving and injecting it -- all destroyed the timed-release mechanism, which unpacked the full opioid punch faster than you could say, "Your brain on drugs."
Since that failed attempt at making a "safe" opioid,
researchers have been experimenting with ways to make all prescription painkillers "abuse-resistant."
Although OxyContin maker Purdue had its "tamper-proof" version approved last year, few other attempts to abuse-proof these drugs have made it on the market.
In June, however, the FDA is expected to issue a decision about another oxycodone product -- Acurox, Pfizer's attempt (through the acquisition of King Pharmaceuticals) at entry into the abuse-proof market.
And a handful of other companies are pursuing a pharmacological solution to help mitigate what the federal government has described as an epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse.