WASHINGTON — Government advisers voiced skepticism Monday that a new version of the potent painkiller Oxy Contin would live up to its maker’s claim of being harder to abuse.
Purdue Pharma LP contends that adding a plasticlike coating to the tablets makes the drug sometimes called “hillbilly heroin” harder to crush and snort or inject.
But advisers to the Food and Drug Administration called for more testing. “What we heard from the committee was that they have a lot of concern that the formulation had not been adequately evaluated,” the FDA’s Dr. Curtis Rosebraughsaid.
The FDA didn’t ask the advisory panel to formally vote on whether the new OxyContin, a time-release version of oxycodone that produces a high like that of heroin when abusers crushed the tablets, should be approved for sale.
