A US senator is urging federal agencies to limit the use of a prescription version of the powerful painkiller fentanyl, going so far as to say the government may be helping to fuel the ongoing opioid epidemic by failing to more aggressively police its use.
Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, sent letters Tuesday to the heads of two federal agencies in response to a STAT article detailing the death of a 32-year-old woman who overdosed on the prescription form of fentanyl called Subsys. The drug, which is sold by Insys Therapeutics, is approved only for use in cancer patients suffering from sharp bouts of previously untreatable pain.
