yes, that's absolutely my point..there are ways of formulating a drug that make it so much harder to abuse. They seem not to have done this and I am floored by it. Love your username.

Depressingly, I am not surprised. Those of us who work in clinical research, on the frontline, as scientists and clinicians, working with patients, developing the drugs...are genuinely interested in helping human health. I love my job. I am part of a team, getting really valuable drugs to folks who need them. The…

Well thank you. And I am very, very sorry to hear of your mother's illness, diabetes is a very difficult illness to live with. My father has diabetes, and he is very lucky to keep it in check with a very strict diet. he's actually slightly underweight now, and his bloodwork is excellent. I can tell you all about how…

Well hello! I work in CNS drug development right now, but I spent the last few years over in oncology (twilight zone music cue..) Yeah, I agree - I am very, very surprised this wasn't taken to comittee. Perhaps because it's a reformulation of an existing compound? I dunno. Best of luck to you - I miss my onco days!

Civilised Internet Discourse! I warmly shake your virtual hand, Ms-or-monsieuer knievel. Your point was very valid - we do have plenty of opioids. Most formulations of those opioids are mixed with paracetamol (acetominophen) as well, and so can't be taken in large doses without serious liver damage. Chronic pain is…

I keep offering myself... scientist, currently working in clinical research... no luck ;)

What we need is pain meds that ONLY target pain. If you take dilaudid, morphine etc, you're pretty out of it. There are targets in research which are based on various natural venoms which hold promise in being incredibly specific. If you're dying of bone cancer, you're in agony. You don't want to be zonked out on a…

Yes, and about time too. But from what I see, this doesn't have those restrictions. I'd be very interested in seeing what harm reduction measures were proposed.

Yes, I've just come back from a quick look on the web. I'm astounded. Truly astounded, that the FDA let this through without at least a nod to abuse reduction (for example the newer OxyContin formulation.)

Yes, it is. Really serious pain is still not addressed adequately by existing meds. They don't seem to have made efforts to make it abuse-resistant (like the newer OxyContin, for example) and that is a serious worry.

Holy mother god. No, they have not. Well, that will escalate quickly.

I work in clinical research, and it's very interesting, but companies do actually look at how "abusable" drugs are. They are looking at ways to make it harder to grind up, snort, inject or cook these capsules. This is a relatively new phenomenom, but I would hope this compound was formulated with this in mind. I'll go…

Yes, that's exactly what my friends who are Spanish tell me. I think history will look back on this and tell us we live in interesting times. At least your weather is decent. I'm a Brit in sweden and oh my goodness... The winters here. So dark...so..so dark.

Hoooo yes. One (ONE) government monopoly sells wine. It's closed at 3 pm on a Saturday and all Sunday. It's been an interesting adjustment for me. I'm a Brit, so I suppose very eccentric and individualistic, and that's very verboten here. On the plus side, I earn 3x my uk salary, everything's clean and safe, gender…

Awful. My sincere sympathies to your sister. I cannot imagine how one rebuilds a life afterwards. I hope whoever did that to her is facing justice ?

Every time a case like this hits the media, I always wonder how many other women are being held like this? I have a horrible, sinking feeling that it's a significant number. My heart goes out to them. How you manage to rebuild a life after an ordeal like that is just unimaginable. And it's always that they have been…

Dark times. I'm lucky to have moved to Sweden, which has largely avoided the euro zone crisis and austerity. What's happening in Spain right now, and really across Southern Europe, is terrible.
I'd be interested to see if you think this is a direct result of the austerity and financial crisis? I know in my native UK…

They have a website, and it's not toooo expensive. Sequencing technology has come down a lot in price. Alzheimer's is a truly brutal disease, as are all forms of dementia. I'm working on a clinical trial with Alzheimer's patients at the moment.
Thing is, we don't really, truly know what causes it. We have a good…

Yeah, most don't. Some can raise the level of tricyclics if you're taking them. Anticonvulsants can really mess with oral contraception... Drug drug interactions are pretty complex sometimes.

St. John's wort can interfere with hormonal contraceptives, in case anyone is thinking of taking it... It does have some clinical efficacy though.