New Pain Pill Causing Controversy Over Its Potency

Feb. 26, 2014

A coalition of more than 40 health care, consumer and addiction treatment groups is asking the FDA to revoke approval of the prescription drug Zohydro. The hydrocodone-based drug is the latest in a group of painkillers called opioid analgesics. The FDA approved the medication last fall to treat chronic pain, and it is supposed to be released in March.

"In the midst of a severe drug epidemic fueled by overprescribing of opioids, the very last thing the country needs is a new, dangerous, high-dose opioid," the coalition wrote in a letter to FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg. Read the full story