FDA Panel Votes To Place Tighter Controls On Narcotics Like Vicodin [View all]

[Purveyor]

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel voted Friday to place stricter controls on popular narcotic painkillers such as a Vicodin.

The 19 to 10 vote, which is advisory, will help the FDA decide whether to recommend moving drugs such as Vicodin, which contain the opioid painkiller, hydrocodone, from Schedule III to Schedule II under the Controlled Substances Act.

---CLIP
Stricter Schedule II status means that fewer prescriptions can be written at one time. For each visit to the doctor, a patient can get up to six months of prescriptions of Schedule III opioids such as Vicodin, compared with up to three months for Schedule II drugs.

Schedule II drugs also have stricter handling and storage requirements.

It was not known when the FDA would make a final decision on the issue.

MORE...

http://www.jsonline.com/features/health/fda-panel-votes-to-place-tighter-controls-on-narcotics-like-vicodin-k28h6hl-188396901.html

MORE from NYT:

The change would have sweeping consequences for doctors, pharmacists and patients. Under the new rules, refills without a new prescription would be forbidden, as would faxed prescriptions and those called in by phone. Only written prescriptions from a doctor would be allowed and pharmacists and distributors would be required to store the drugs in special vaults. The vote comes after similar legislation in Congress failed last year, after intense lobbying by pharmacists and drugstores.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/health/fda-vote-on-restricting-hydrocodone-products-vicodin.html?_r=0