Agency sat on `bupe' study

Officials waited to reveal findings on misuse of drug

Sun follow-up

The panel also noted that federal agencies were failing to share data that would help them identify patterns of abuse. Findings from the FDA-mandated "post marketing surveillance" system set up in 2003 by Reckitt Benckiser to detect abuse of the drug, for instance, weren't made available to SAMHSA officials who were supposed to monitor its misuse.

Deaths and injuries related to misuse of buprenorphine were likely to be under-reported, the panel suggested, because medical examiners and emergency rooms weren't routinely testing for the presence of the drug in overdose cases. The experts advised SAMHSA to develop a monitoring system so that "early intervention can be taken to interrupt and minimize any non medical use."

The consultants also uncovered a number of shortcomings in the buprenorphine program run in Vermont, the state with the highest levels of use with the drug. The report found that the state's Medicaid program was being billed for prescriptions for the drug from doctors not authorized to prescribe it. In one case, a gynecologist was listed as prescribing Suboxone to male patients.

Prison inmates were among those misusing the drug, the report said. Jay Simons, superintendent of the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington, Vt., said buprenorphine is the drug most often smuggled in. "Bupe is consistently a problem," he said.

In an interview yesterday, Simons said public safety officials would have benefited from knowing what the federal government knew of abuse and illegal sales. "It certainly would have given us a heads up," he said.

Sanders said that Congress needs to take action quickly before generic versions of the drug become available.

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