FDA approves new painkiller from Purdue Pharma designed to discourage abuse

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new combination pain pill from the maker of OxyContin that is designed to discourage abuse by painkiller addicts.

Purdue Pharma's new drug Targiniq ER is an extended release tablet that combines oxycodone — the active ingredient in OxyContin — with the drug naloxone. FDA regulators approved the drug for daily, round-the-clock pain that does not respond to other medications.

If users crush the tablets for snorting or injecting the naloxone blocks the euphoric effects of oxycodone, making the drug more difficult to abuse. Naloxone is currently used to reverse overdoses with opioids, the highly addictive painkilling drugs.

The FDA notes that Targiniq can still be abused by simply swallowing the tablets, the most frequent method of abusing opioids.