Collaboration between U.S. and drug companies could benefit Canada: scientist
VANCOUVER — A scientist says a public-private partnership aimed at developing medications that would combat overdose deaths in the United States could potentially help chronic drug users in Canada.
Dr. Nora Volkow of the National Institutes of Health said the agency has joined forces with about a dozen drug companies in the United States to try and reach the “holy grail” — the creation of a non-addictive opioid to treat chronic pain.
Pharmaceutical companies spent millions of dollars aiming for that goal and failed, but 33,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2015 revived their interest, said Volkow, who heads the U.S. agency’s National Institute on Drug Abuse.
She said Wednesday that companies then developed other drugs, wrongly believing people could not become addicted to prescription opioids.