The Food and Drug Administration plans to require more research about whether opioid painkillers are safe for long-term use, per the Washington Post.
Between the lines: FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told the Post, "We are going to impose a mandate on existing products ... to answer the question that people have been posing for years: whether you have declining efficacy, and whether that declining efficacy can lead to addiction." Former FDA commissioner David Kessler said on "60 Minutes" this past weekend that the agency made a mistake when it approved opioids like OxyContin for long-term use, because it didn't have enough scientific data to support that decision.
