Opioid Addiction | DecisionBase | US/EU5 | 2014
How Will Physicians and Payers Value Advances in Drug Delivery?
Opioid addiction is a debilitating, chronic relapsing disorder affecting nearly 5 million people in the seven major markets under study (United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, and Japan). The buprenorphine/naloxone sublingual film (Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals’ Suboxone) was the patient- and market-share leader in 2012 owing to its familiarity to physicians and lack of administration restrictions compared with other opioid replacement therapies. Additional buprenorphine/naloxone formulations and the buprenorphine implant (Titan Pharmaceuticals/Braeburn Pharmaceuticals’ Probuphine) will offer delivery advantages over existing products; however, with limited drug development in opioid addiction, our surveyed psychiatrists and payers agree that significant opportunity remains for therapies that can offer improvement in reducing the use of opioids, as well as the risk of misuse, abuse, and diversion in this difficult-to-treat population.
