--- title: FDA Approves New Pain Reliever Designed to Be Hard to Abuse description: The FDA has been under growing pressure to fight the national epidemic of prescription opioid abuse canonical: https://time.com/3031100/fda-pain-bill-targiniq-er/ author: TIME Video article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-24T21:30:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T08:57:55.044Z article:section: Health og:title: FDA Approves New Pain Reliever Designed to Be Hard to Abuse og:description: The FDA has been under growing pressure to fight the national epidemic of prescription opioid abuse og:url: https://time.com/3031100/fda-pain-bill-targiniq-er/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b21b13ab470195a/69869d24f983e7e11704efa8/oxy-1280x720.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1280 og:image:height: 720 og:image:alt: Oxy 1280X720 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: FDA Approves New Pain Reliever Designed to Be Hard to Abuse twitter:description: The FDA has been under growing pressure to fight the national epidemic of prescription opioid abuse twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b21b13ab470195a/69869d24f983e7e11704efa8/oxy-1280x720.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # FDA Approves New Pain Pill Designed To Be Hard to Abuse > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=f322824b-652b-43bc-bc9d-76a42bb96b28&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: FDA Approves Painkiller Designed To Deter Abuse [Watch (HLS stream): FDA Approves Painkiller Designed To Deter Abuse](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Ymqv9uEa.m3u8) (2:09)  _Published 2014-07-24. The FDA approved a new drug that combines oxycodone with another drug that will make the pills useless if patients crush them, a sign the administration believes means users intend to inject or snort the drug to get high._ by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Jul 24, 2014 9:30 PM UTC The FDA approved a new drug that combines oxycodone with another drug that will make the pills useless if patients crush them, a sign the administration believes means users intend to inject or snort the drug to get high. by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Jul 24, 2014 9:30 PM UTC The Food and Drug Administration approved on Wednesday a new pain pill that was created to discourage abuse, [the Associated Press reports.](http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/fda-approves-painkiller-oxycontin-maker-24686521) The new pill, Targiniq ER, combines oxycodone, a potentially addictive opioid used in many pain medications, with naloxone, often used to trim the effects of opioids. The naloxone isn’t activated if the pill is swallowed as normal. If a would-be drug abuser crushes the pill to snort or inject it, however, the naloxone activates. That can potentially make Targiniq ER less attractive to abusers. “Targiniq ER has properties that are expected to deter, but not totally prevent, abuse of the drug by snorting and injection,” [FDA said in a statement.](http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm406407.htm) ## Transcript [00:00] the fda just approved a new drug that combines a painkiller [00:04] with something that blocks the pain killed why the drug [00:08] called targinicer is a mix of painkiller oxy coninde [00:12] and nyloxim. Naloxone blocks the euphoric effects of [00:17] the pain killer, but it only activates if the pill gets physically [00:21] crushed. So basically, if you do something the FDA [00:24] believes is the first step towards snorting or injecting [00:28] Oxycodone to get high. The Naloxone stops it. In a [00:31] statement Wednesday, the FDA wrote, Encouraging the [00:34] development of opioids with abuse- deterrent properties is [00:37] just one component of a broader approach to reducing [00:41] abuse and misuse. But treating drug addiction problems [00:44] with more drugs is something that's going to bring out the [00:47] skeptics. Keep in mind the maker of Targenic Purdue [00:51] Pharma tried the same tactic with Oxycontin in 2010. [00:55] By making a pill that had much less pay off for addicts if [00:58] they crushed it. Only two years later the New England [01:01] Journal of Medicine found people with opioid dependence [01:04] that used Oxycontin as their drug of choice. Dropped from [01:08] 36 % to 13. But it also found a problem, many of [01:12] the addicts had simply switched to a more effective [01:15] combination of other drugs including heroin. Researchers [01:19] with the journal wrote, Thus, abuse- deterrent formulations [01:22] may not be the magic bullets that many hoped they would [01:25] be in solving the growing problem of opioid abuse. With [01:29] Targinic the FDA even wrote, the drug shouldn't be for as [01:33] needed pain relief, but for chronic pain patients who didn't [01:36] respond well to other treatments. The Los Angeles Times [01:40] take to multiple pain management experts who said, it's [01:43] usually a better tactic for doctors to take more care in [01:46] prescribing pain killers. Rather than switching to new drugs [01:50] still one said the obvious alternative is not to have [01:54] abuse- deterrent formulations, and I don't know anyone [01:56] who would find that preferable. If taken orally and without [02:00] crushing it, the FDA noted too much targiniq can still lead [02:04] to over doses, just like oxycodone. 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