ADDICTION TREATMENT TO BE AVAILABLE AT DOC'S OFFICE

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Drug addicts in the United States will soon be able
to get medical treatment in the privacy of their own doctors' offices,
thanks to the approval of two new drugs and a new piece of legislation,
experts and lawmakers said on Wednesday.

Two formulations of the narcotic painkiller buprenorphine were approved by
the US Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) Tuesday night, and
under legislation signed by US President Bill Clinton in 2000 they can be
prescribed by specially licensed doctors and filled at a pharmacy.

The drugs, called Subutex and Suboxone, are the first two that can be
prescribed under the legislation, aimed at getting drug addiction patients
away from poorly attended clinics.

The new rules effectively give heroin and other opiate addicts more control
over their treatment, and experts hope the combination of a new drug and
easier availability will mean more addicts will seek help.

"We hope we have made a major impact on the reduction of heroin addiction,"
Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who helped sponsor the legislation,
said at a news conference.

"Currently the available medications, methadone and ORLAAM (a relative of
methadone), are extremely useful but ensnared in regulations that grossly
limit their potential effectiveness," said Charles Schuster, a psychiatry
professor at Wayne State University.

Fewer than 200,000 of an estimated 1 million opiate addicts in the United
States are in treatment, added Dr. Harold Kleber, substance abuse director
at Columbia University's medical school. This is in part because it is so
difficult to get treatment at clinics, which tend to be in urban
neighborhoods and often in crime-ridden districts.

At least half of those offered methadone treatment turn it down, according
to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Patients often dislike the
atmosphere at clinics and want more of a say in their treatment than
clinics offer.

NEW DRUGS

The new drugs, made by British pharmaceutical company Reckitt Benckiser
Pharmaceuticals, not only block the effects of opiate drugs on the brain
but also are considered less likely to themselves cause dependence and
addiction.

Like methadone, buprenorphrine is related to morphine. It can be abused and
it can kill if taken in an overdose.

Buprenorphine alone is sold under the brand name Subutex, while a second
newly approved pill, Suboxone, also contains naloxone--another drug that
interferes with the effects of opioids on the brain.

"Subutex and Suboxone are the first narcotic drugs available for the
treatment of opiate dependence that can be prescribed in an office setting
under the Drug Addiction Treatment Act (DATA) of 2000," the FDA said in a
statement.

"Until recently, opiate dependence treatments...like methadone could be
dispensed in a very limited number of clinics that specialize in addiction
treatment. As a consequence, there have not been enough addiction treatment
centers to accommodate all patients desiring therapy."

"I hope that FDA approval will help spur the private sector to redouble its
efforts to find new cures for drug addiction," said Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch,
a Republican who helped sponsor the legislation.

Hatch and others stressed that drug use should remain illegal, but said
they hoped addicts would someday be treated as patients and not as criminals.

"Opioid dependence, as with other addictions, is a chronic relapsing
disorder, not a character flaw, failure of will or lack of self-control.
These drugs change our brains," Kleber said.