In a move to expand access to medication-assisted opioid addiction treatments, the FDA plans to allow pharmaceutical companies to manufacture and sell medications that help reduce opioid cravings, even if they don't fully stop addiction, according to The New York Times.
Here are five things to know.
1. The FDA will issue draft guidelines in the next few weeks for manufacturers interested in supporting the effort to curb opioid addiction through MATs.
2. One guidance will encourage drugmakers to develop longer-acting formulas of existing drugs to treat opioid addiction. The other guidance will promote the development of drugs that help reduce opioid cravings or overdoses.
3. Currently, three drugs — buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone — have earned FDA approval to help combat opioid addiction.
4. The new proposal seeks to expand access to MATs to reduce cravings, overdoses or any other aspect of the addiction.,Federal data shows only a third of substance abuse treatment programs offer a MAT option, according to the report.
"We want to raise that number — in fact, it will be nigh impossible to turn the tide on this epidemic without doing so," HHS Secretary Alex Azar told The Times.
5. Andrew Kolodny, MD, a director of opioid policy research and Waltham, Mass.-based Brandeis University, told The Times the FDA's move to encourage additional treatments was smart, but warns the biggest problem is still a lack of access to treatments.
"We already have an effective treatment that people aren't getting access to," said Dr. Kolodny. "The primary challenge is getting it to people."