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# Gottlieb Highlights Opioid Steps
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/gottlieb-highlights-opioid-steps/
- Published: 2017-07-14T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T22:34:26.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5139135

Responding to a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report on the nation’s opioid epidemic, FDA commissioner **Scott Gottlieb** highlighted steps the agency is taking as part of his commitment to reduce the scope of the epidemic. In a [statement](https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm566958.htm?ref=fdaweb.com), Gottlieb says that reducing the epidemic is his highest immediate priority. Actions he highlighted are: 

- ensuring that drug approval and removal decisions are made within a benefit/risk framework that evaluates not only the outcomes of opioids when used as prescribed, but also the public health effects of the inappropriate use of the drugs;
- reducing the rate of addiction by being sure that only appropriately indicated patients are prescribed opioids through better education of providers;
- modifying the existing REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy) for extended-release/long-acting opioid analgesics and including immediate-release opioid analgesic products in the modified REMS;
- training for non-physician providers; and
- securing data needed to better understand the impact of opioid medications.

“The agency is encouraging the development of new treatment options for patients in pain,” Gottlieb concludes, “especially treatments that are not addictive. We’re also continuously reevaluating the safety of approved opioid products based on both post-market data FDA has required from sponsors and additional sources of information as part of our safety surveillance. We will continue to consider what additional information is needed to ensure we have the right data to make important, science-based decisions.”