Changing course: A new approach to opioid pain medication at FDA

Deputy Commissioner for Medical Products and Tobacco Robert Califf, MD, notes that more Americans now die every year from drug overdoses than they do in motor vehicle crashes. Opioids were involved in 28,648 deaths in 2014, according to CDC. FDA is “announcing a change in course in how our agency approaches opioids — their approval, their labeling, and their prescribing,” says Califf.