FDA looks at doctor training on painkillers

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is reconsidering whether doctors who prescribe painkillers like Oxy-Contin should be required to take safety training courses, according to federal documents released Friday.

Regulators disclosed that the number of doctors who completed voluntary training programs is less than half that targeted by the agency.

A panel of FDA advisers meets next week to review risk-management plans put in place nearly four years ago to reduce misuse and abuse of long-acting painkillers, powerful opioid drugs at the center of a national wave of abuse and death.

Under the current riskmanagement programs, drugmakers fund voluntary training for physicians on howto safely prescribe their medications. Many experts said those measures don’t go far enough and that physician training should be mandatory.

According to the FDA, 37,500physicians completed voluntary training by March 2015, less than half the targeted number of 80,000. Surveys by drugmakers showed that 40 percent of prescribers were unaware of the programs more than a half-year after they launched.

The FDA will present its findings over a two-day meeting beginning Tuesday, then ask its panel of outside safety experts what changes should be made to improve the plans. The panel’s advice is not binding.