Blister Packaging for Certain Immediate Release Opioid Analgesics for Treatment of Acute Pain – Docket No. FDA-2019-N-1845 as it relates to opioid packaging, and recently passed Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients (SUPPORT) Act, passed in late 2018.
Now the goal of the legislation and its inclusion of unit dose packaging is to address the ongoing opioid crisis in the USA and one of the key culprits — an oversupply of unused drugs in American medicine cabinets. HCPC supports the concept that more accurate prescribing and dispensing practices can go a long way toward reducing excess supply and the potential for extra doses finding their way into the wrong hands. Properly sized unit dose packaging can be a wonderful tool in this path, aside from the myriad of other benefits it can provide.