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Introduction Opioid overdose deaths in the United States have climbed sharply over the past two decades. Simultaneously, increased awareness of inadequately treated chronic pain has resulted in increased opioid analgesic prescribing. The correlation between these two phenomena has led policymakers to posit that they are causally linked, and to implement policy changes supporting safe opioid prescribing. Purpose To evaluate the impact of its Opioid Analgesic Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requested the opioid manufacturers responsible for implementing that program provide information regarding opioid policy changes from 2016 to 2018. FDA also requested a survey of state requirements for pain and opioid prescribing continuing education (CE), the number of prescribers affected by those requirements, the extent to which a REMS-compliant CE program would meet each state's requirements, and the number of relevant CE programs available. Results Results indicate that 527 federal and state opioid-related policies (statutes, rules/regulations, and guidelines) were approved during the 2016-2018 study period. While the largest number of these policies focused on prescription drug monitoring programs, 170 specifically imposed limits on opioid prescribing and an additional 35 specifically referred to, or incorporated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention opioid prescribing guideline. We also found that 46 states and the District of Columbia mandated some amount of pain or opioid prescribing CE for prescribers renewing their licenses. These mandates potentially affected as many as 1.7 million prescribers. In 69% of cases, a REMS-compliant CE program would fully meet the state mandates for various types of prescribers. Conclusion The severity and complexity of the problems of pain management and opioid overdose have led to large-scale intervention by policymakers. Assessing the impact of these changes is difficult, at best, but will be necessary if interventions are to be refined to increase their effectiveness.

Background/rationale Little is known about the reasons for visiting multiple doctors/pharmacies, known as doctor/pharmacy shopping, to obtain opioids. Objective To investigate patients' self-reported reasons for doctor/pharmacy shopping and assess whether doctor/pharmacy shopping behavior can be used as a surrogate measure of opioid abuse/misuse. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional web-based survey among adult patients with ≥2 pharmacy claims for immediate-release or extended-release/long-acting opioids between 7/1/2015 and 12/31/2016, identified from a large United States (US) commercial claims database. Patients were classified into no, mild, moderate, or severe shopping categories based on their claims. Reasons for doctor/pharmacy shopping and opioid abuse/misuse were determined from patient responses to the Prescription Opioid Misuse and Abuse Questionnaire. Results A random sample of 10,081 patients was invited to participate in the survey and 1085 (11%) completed surveys. The most frequently reported reasons for doctor/pharmacy shopping were convenience, availability, price, and multiple morbidities requiring pain management. Among patients in the no, minimal, moderate, and severe shopping categories, only 7.8%, 8.5%, 11.8% and 12.6% reported opioid abuse/misuse, respectively. Conclusion In this commercially-insured population, patient-reported reasons for doctor/pharmacy shopping do not suggest opioid abuse/misuse. Less than 15% of patients with shopping behavior in the past 3 months reported any reasons attributable to opioid abuse/misuse, indicating that shopping behavior in this population may not be a good surrogate for abuse/misuse.

Daina B Esposito, 1 M Soledad Cepeda, 2 Crystal N Holick, 1 Caitlin Knox, 1 Vibha CA Desai, 1 Nianya Liu, 1 Shiva-Krishna Vojjala, 1 Jennifer G Lyons, 1 Gregory P Wedin, 3 Stephan Lanes 1 On Behalf of the REMS Program Companies Metrics Subteam 1HealthCore, Inc, Andover, MA, USA; 2Janssen Research and Development, Titusville, NJ, USA; 3Upsher-Smith Laboratories, LLC, Maple Grove, MN, USACorrespondence: Stephan LanesSafety and Epidemiology, HealthCore, Inc., 300 Brickstone Square, 8th Floor, Suite 801A, Andover, MA 01810, USATel +1 302-384-0673Fax +1 978-247-6650Email slanes@healthcore.comIntroduction: The United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) for extended-release and long-acting (ER/LA) opioid analgesics on 09 July 2012.Methods: This study compared the incidence of opioid overdose before (July 2010-June 2012) and after (July 2013-September 2016) the initiation of the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) for extended-release and long-acting (ER/LA) opioid analgesics. We identified patients with ≥ 1 ER/LA opioid dispensing in either time period in national data from the HealthCore Integrated Research DatabaseSM (HIRD) and in United States (US) Medicaid claims data from four states. We described each population, calculated the incidence rate (IR) of opioid overdose, and assessed crude and propensity score adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRR) comparing the overdose rate after vs before implementation of the REMS.Results: A total of 121,229 commercially insured and 11,488 Medicaid patients were included in the analysis. Rates of overdose were substantially higher in Medicaid patients than in the commercially insured patients (IR 192.0, 95% confidence interval [CI] 162.60– 225.18 versus 102.60, 95% CI 93.0– 112.93 in the active period). The IRRs for opioid overdose were 1.01 (95% CI 0.87– 1.17) in the commercially insured population and 0.70 (95% CI 0.52– 0.93) in Medicaid.Conclusion: This leveling off of overdose rates among commercially insured patients and decline among Medicaid patients is encouraging, but it is difficult to disentangle the specific impact of the REMS from many other ongoing initiatives with similar goals.Keywords: opioid, overdose, REMS, Medicaid, claims

Introduction Opioid overdose deaths in the United States have climbed sharply over the past two decades. Simultaneously, increased awareness of inadequately treated chronic pain has resulted in increased opioid analgesic prescribing. The correlation between these two phenomena has led policymakers to posit that they are causally linked, and to implement policy changes supporting safe opioid prescribing. Purpose To evaluate the impact of its Opioid Analgesic Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requested the opioid manufacturers responsible for implementing that program provide information regarding opioid policy changes from 2016 to 2018. FDA also requested a survey of state requirements for pain and opioid prescribing continuing education (CE), the number of prescribers affected by those requirements, the extent to which a REMS-compliant CE program would meet each state’s requirements, and the number of relevant CE programs available. Results Results indicate that 527 federal and state opioid-related policies (statutes, rules/regulations, and guidelines) were approved during the 2016–2018 study period. While the largest number of these policies focused on prescription drug monitoring programs, 170 specifically imposed limits on opioid prescribing and an additional 35 specifically referred to, or incorporated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention opioid prescribing guideline. We also found that 46 states and the District of Columbia mandated some amount of pain or opioid prescribing CE for prescribers renewing their licenses. These mandates potentially affected as many as 1.7 million prescribers. In 69% of cases, a REMS-compliant CE program would fully meet the state mandates for various types of prescribers. Conclusion The severity and complexity of the problems of pain management and opioid overdose have led to large-scale intervention by policymakers. Assessing the impact of these changes is difficult, at best, but will be necessary if interventions are to be refined to increase their effectiveness.

Background/Rationale Little is known about the reasons for visiting multiple doctors/pharmacies, known as doctor/pharmacy shopping, to obtain opioids. Objective To investigate patients’ self-reported reasons for doctor/pharmacy shopping and assess whether doctor/pharmacy shopping behavior can be used as a surrogate measure of opioid abuse/misuse. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional web-based survey among adult patients with ≥2 pharmacy claims for immediate-release or extended-release/long-acting opioids between 7/1/2015 and 12/31/2016, identified from a large United States (US) commercial claims database. Patients were classified into no, mild, moderate, or severe shopping categories based on their claims. Reasons for doctor/pharmacy shopping and opioid abuse/misuse were determined from patient responses to the Prescription Opioid Misuse and Abuse Questionnaire. Results A random sample of 10,081 patients was invited to participate in the survey and 1085 (11%) completed surveys. The most frequently reported reasons for doctor/pharmacy shopping were convenience, availability, price, and multiple morbidities requiring pain management. Among patients in the no, minimal, moderate, and severe shopping categories, only 7.8%, 8.5%, 11.8% and 12.6% reported opioid abuse/misuse, respectively. Conclusion In this commercially-insured population, patient-reported reasons for doctor/pharmacy shopping do not suggest opioid abuse/misuse. Less than 15% of patients with shopping behavior in the past 3 months reported any reasons attributable to opioid abuse/misuse, indicating that shopping behavior in this population may not be a good surrogate for abuse/misuse.