Designing Medications That Thwart Abuse

Objective. Introduce the different approaches being utilized in designing abuse deterrent medications. Background. Abuse and misuse of prescription medications is a growing problem threatening public health. To combat this increase, novel drug formulations have recently been developed and are now becoming available as treatment options. Methods. An online search for relevant literature and formulation strategies was first conducted using the online database Embase. Next, a search for issued patents on abuse deterrent formulation methods was performed using PatFT from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. For the most up to date information, press releases and product innovators websites were reviewed for additional data. Results. Overall, two different formulation approaches were identified and labeled as (1) physical approaches and (2) chemical approaches. Physical approaches are designs having mechanical characteristic that prevent physical tampering. They were sub-categorized further based on their formulation as solids, gels, or non-intentional type products. Chemical approaches typically use the addition of one or more non-active ingredient(s) into the formulation to deter abuse. Other chemical methods involve modifications to the drug structure itself to produce prodrugs. The chemical approach types were labeled as agonist/antagonist, aversive agents, or metabolics. Conclusion. We found most formulations used a combination of approaches and utilized proprietary technologies from pharmaceutical manufacturers. Prodrug and agonist/antagonist formulations have been used in past, while solid and gel approaches are more common innovations in recent drug products. The effectiveness of these innovative formulations to deter abuse in the general population is yet to be determined. Grants.