Hamburg: Abuse-Deterrent Opioid Guide Will Be Out By Congressional Deadline

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg told House lawmakers Wednesday (March 4) that a guidance on evaluation and labeling of abuse-deterrent opioid drugs will be finished by appropriators' June 30 deadline -- or possibly even sooner. Lawmakers in the end-of-year spending package withheld $20 million from FDA's Office of the Commissioner pending completion of the 2013 guidance, and said that if FDA didn't meet the June 30 deadline the funds would be transferred to the agency's Office of Criminal Investigation. “The abuse-deterrent...