Almost overnight, a powerful new painkiller has become a $100m business. But, reports [s]The New York Times[/s], questions are emerging about how the drug is being sold, and to whom. The drug, [b]Subsys[/b], is a form of fentanyl, a narcotic often used when painkillers like morphine fail to provide relief. The product was approved in 2012 for a relatively small number of people – cancer patients – but has since become an outsize money maker for the obscure company that makes it, [b]Insys Ther apeutics[/b]. The [b]US Food and Drug Administration[/b] warned that it should be prescribed only by oncologists and pain spec ialists, but the report says that just 1% of prescriptions are written by oncologists.
[link url=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/business/doubts-raised-about-off-label-use-of-subsys-a-strong-painkiller.html?emc=edit_th_20140514&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=42505380&_r=0]Full report in The New York Times [/link]