On November 2 the Food and Drug Administration announced the approval of Dsuvia, a sublingual tablet containing the powerful fentanyl analog, sufentanil. Sufentanil has been used for years in the hospital setting, primarily in intravenous form for anesthesia. It is roughly 5 to 10 times more potent than fentanyl, and thus has a significant overdose potential. The FDA reached this decision following a 10-3 vote in favor of the drug’s approval by the Anesthetic and Analgesia Drug Products Advisory Committee (AADPAC), based on data from multicenter trials. It was not approved for outpatient use, but for use only in medically supervised settings, and may be of particular benefit to military health care practitioners.

FDA Commissioner Gottlieb’s announcement stated:

Dsuvia, which was previously approved by the European Medicines Agency in July under the brand name Dzuveo, has some unique features in that the drug is delivered in a stable form that makes it ideally suited for certain special circumstances where patients may not be able to swallow oral medication, and where access to intravenous pain relief is not possible. This includes potential uses on the battlefield. For this reason, the Department of Defense (DoD) worked closely with the sponsor on the development of this new medicine. This opioid formulation, along with Dsuvia’s unique delivery device, was a priority medical product for the Pentagon because it fills a specific and important, but limited, unmet medical need in treating our nation’s soldiers on the battlefield. The involvement and needs of the DoD in treating soldiers on the battlefield were discussed by the advisory committee.

The announcement was met with criticism from numerous quarters, including Anesthesiology Professor Raeford Brown of the University of Kentucky, who chairs the AADPAC, Senator Edward Markey (D-MA), and the advocacy group Public Citizen. They questioned the need for the development of a new and potent opioid in the presence of the opioid overdose crisis, and raised concerns about the potential for the drug’s diversion to the black market for non-medical users. These objections were trumpeted by the media.

The concerns raised by critics are unfounded. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, most fentanyl and fentanyl analogs found on the streets are in an illicit powdered form, made in labs overseas and smuggled into the US via the mail, Fedex, and UPS, or using Mexican drug cartel infrastructure. While much of it is mixed in with heroin or cocaine, many dealers own pill presses and press the powder into counterfeit oxycodone or hydrocodone pills that are sold to unsuspecting nonmedical users. That’s how the artist known as Prince died. He liked to use Vicodin (hydrocodone) recreationally. Records show he never obtained any prescriptions from doctors. His dealer sold him what was believed to be Vicodin but was actually counterfeit and made from fentanyl, which caused his overdose death.

Recrudescent opiophobia now evokes positions held at the zenith of President Nixon’s war on drugs. The fact remains that opioids can be highly effective in treating pain, especially in the acute setting. Hysteria-driven policy should not stifle innovations in this or other forms of pain management.

Commissioner Gottlieb also stated in the FDA announcement:

We owe an answer to patients with medical pain, and the innovators who take risks to develop products to help address their needs. We owe it to Americans who want the FDA to do our part to help end one of the biggest addiction crises of modern times, while we carefully balance these grave risks against patient needs.

Commissioner Gottlieb made the right call here.