Sept. 22, 2022.
Dr. Steven Shoptaw was recently interviewed by a healthcare reporter at Clinical Trials Arena in London. He was quoted in their article entitled, “Is pharma neglecting the unmet need of substance use disorder therapies?”, which explores possible reasons behind the lack of pharma sponsorship in clinical trials investigating new addiction treatments. The article points out that, while there are currently hundreds of active or planned clinical trials investigating treatments for substance use disorder, the vast majority of them are being sponsored by academic institutions and not pharmaceutical companies. The article suggests that the stigma surrounding substance use may be calling into question the profitability of treatment medications. There is also mention of the lack of flexibility in regulatory arena, which often requires a medication to result in complete abstinence from substances when a reduction in use would be of significant benefit to many patients. To read more, click here.