Prescription-drug abuse continues to be a problem, and it appears teens are “picking-up” at an alarming rate. The availability of drugs to abuse is just one of the reasons for this disturbing reality. Obviously, many other factors are involved, including the ability to extract medications from long acting drug-delivery systems in order to achieve a more immediate effect.
TrisPharma, a New Jersey pharmaceutical company, has just announced the launch of its NoBuse™ technology which “…allows companies to provide pain relief responsibly.” Also applicable to ADHD products and other drugs of abuse, TrisPharma claims their system is “nearly impervious to abuse.”
The company offers sparse details about its technology, but here’s what we know:
NoBuse™ is an innovative and patent pending technology utilized in the formulation of drugs with abuse potential. The abuse deterrence is attained by physical means and works at two levels: the technology forms a complex of a drug with very fine polymeric particles; then coating the drug-polymer complex with a highly flexible non-breakable coating. This makes the product resistant to prevalent drug extraction approaches used on conventional formulations without the need of additional ingredients. The products based on NoBuse technology can be formulated in any oral dosage forms, such as tablets, liquid suspensions, oral dissolving tablets (ODT), and films or strips in either immediate release or 12 to 24 controlled release profiles…
“Abuse of prescription drugs is a fast-growing problem-being able to limit this liability is a real benefit to society,” says Thomas Newton, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at the Baylor College of Medicine. “Other methods can be breached-but the data for NoBuse(TM) shows that it is virtually impossible for abusers to get around. I also like the fact that the abuse deterrence is not contingent on the patient being forced to take added active ingredients such as the antagonist naloxone. The vast majority of patients aren’t abusers and there is no reason for them to ingest an additional drug they don’t need.”
The technology works across a range of oral dosage forms including tablets, liquid suspensions, orally disintegrating tablets, and drug strips. It can also be used to formulate an immediate-release product with a built-in abuse deterrent. In doing so, Tris Pharma’s NoBuse(TM) technology provides important value and a competitive advantage against competing delivery technologies.
Press release: Tris Pharma’s New Tool Fights Against Prescription Drug Abuse…
Product page: NoBuse™…