A Painkiller's Deadly Results
There are new questions about whether the FDA has been too slow to take action on a pain-killing drug linked to more than 100 deaths and serious side effects.
CBS News correspondent Jerry Bowen reports the drug is Fentanyl, a powerful narcotic prescribed to millions of Americans.
It's the most popular pain patch on the market with four million prescriptions for Johnson & Johnson's Duragesic filled at pharmacies last year.
A patch that delivers Fentanyl – a narcotic many times more powerful than morphine to people suffering with chronic pain.
But the Los Angeles County Coroners Office reports a growing number of accidental over-doses by patients misusing the patch: 127 deaths over the last six years.
"They're not getting the relief that they want. Therefore they're slapping more patches on trying to get that instantaneous relief," says toxicologist Daniel Anderson. "What they don't realize is that most of these patches are to be applied over a three-day period."
Despite alerts from the L.A. County coroners lab as early as 2000, the FDA issued a health advisory just last July warning: "The directions for using the Fentanyl skin patch must be followed exactly to prevent death or other serious side effects from overdosing with Fentanyl."
It's a serious concern in Florida too where 115 deaths from Fentanyl poisoning were reported last year – most involving the patch.
Physicians say the problem is not the patch – but the patient – ignoring or not heeding warnings:
"When the physician first prescribes the patch to say, 'This isn't like candy, this isn't like one aspirin isn't working, I think I'll take a second one.' This is really potent medicine," says Dr. Lonnie Zeltzer, a pain management specialist
The patch underscores a broader issue regarding drug safety – the fact that neither the FDA nor the drug companies have a thorough system for monitoring the effects of a new medicine after it comes to market.
In this case, it's a deadly effect for patients who take far too much of a good thing in a desperate effort to ease their pain.