Opioid painkillers that have led to thousands of deaths and new drug addicts should be the highest priority of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Scott Gottlieb, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency.
“The opioid epidemic in this country has staggering human consequences,” Gottlieb said Wednesday in a hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. “I think this is the biggest crisis facing the agency.”
Likening the widespread abuse of opioids to the outbreak of Ebola virus that ran rampant in West Africa, Gottlieb said that the agency would have to pursue a number of paths, such as working with drugmakers seeking approval for alternatives and abuse-deterrent versions of the drugs. More than 33,000 people died from opioid overdoses in 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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