United States, NEW YORK, NY, January 17, 2023. The MAT Act eliminates the out-of-date registration restrictions for buprenorphine, allowing healthcare professionals nationwide to prescribe it as they would any other controlled substance, according to Bridge Therapeutics, a late-stage pharmaceutical startup company.
Buprenorphine treats chronic pain and addiction far more safely than traditional opioids like morphine, methadone, oxycodone, and fentanyl. Bridge is conducting Phase 3 FDA clinical trials for the drug BT 219, which treats opioid use disorder (OUD) by combining buprenorphine and naloxone.
Dr. Greg Sullivan, Bridge’s Chairman & Chief Scientific Officer, commented on the news by saying that 80% of the 107,000 Americans who died from drug overdoses last year abused opioids.
With buprenorphine now being able to be prescribed like any other controlled substance, the MAT Act should widen the crucial role that this medication plays in treating opioid use disorder. For OUD, buprenorphine is a safer medicine than methadone while its rapid delivery is key to broadening its appeal above Suboxone® and generic films and tablet forms of buprenorphine and naloxone.
Tim Peara, President of Bridge, concurred with Dr. Sullivan in saying that the MAT Act should increase the management of opioid addiction among all patient populations and, as a result, expand the buprenorphine market, particularly in rural areas and communities of color that have historically had difficulty accessing the drug.
Regarding buprenorphine:
Buprenorphine is partial-agonist or partial-acting opioid that can be used to treat moderate to severe pain as well as opioid addiction. In August 2016, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) removed buprenorphine from its overdose risk monitoring list after concluding that it was safer than full-agonist opioids including morphine, oxycodone, and fentanyl.
In its Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force Report from May, 2019, the US Health & Human Services Department encouraged buprenorphine use, insurance coverage, and research for chronic pain. In May, 2022, the Veterans Administration issued guidance to its physician network covering 16.5 million veterans to treat chronic pain with buprenorphine ahead of traditional opioids.
MAT Act: Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment.
This measure, which is named after Medication Assisted Therapy to address opioid addiction, eliminates the regulatory hurdle that doctors had to overcome in order to prescribe buprenorphine.
By mandating that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) run a national awareness campaign to persuade medical professionals to adopt MAT into their practices, the Act should assist in normalizing the crucial part that buprenorphine plays in MAT. On December 29, 2022, the MAT Act was approved with substantial, bipartisan support as a component of the year-end appropriations package. On February 7th, President Biden highlighted this crucial advance in the State of the Union Address.
Concerning Bridge Therapeutics Inc.
A late-stage development business called Bridge Therapeutics, Inc. (Addiction & Pain Treatments | Bridge Therapeutics) is working to get FDA approval for BT-219 for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) and BT-205 for the management of chronic pain in people who have used opioids before. The company’s goal is to enhance the healthcare of millions of people by providing OUD and chronic pain treatments that are safer and more efficient.
Contact Bridge for a Prospectus
