Profile of extended-release oxycodone/acetaminophen for acute pain

Mary Hanna Bekhit1–51David Geffen School of Medicine, 2Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, 3UCLA Ambulatory Surgery Center, 4UCLA Wasserman Eye Institute, 5UCLA Martin Luther King Community Hospital, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA Abstract: This article provides a historical and pharmacological overview of a new opioid analgesic that boasts an extended-release (ER) formulation designed to provide both immediate and prolonged analgesia for up to 12 hours in patients who are experiencing acute pain. This novel medication, ER oxycodone/acetaminophen, competes with current US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved opioid formulations available on the market in that it offers two benefits concurrently: a prolonged duration of action, and multimodal analgesia through a combination of an opioid (oxycodone) with a nonopioid component. Current FDA-approved combination analgesics, such as Percocet (oxycodone/acetaminophen), are available solely in immediate-release (IR) formulations. Keywords: opioid, analgesic, xartemis, acute postsurgical pain, substance abuse, acetaminophen, extended release&nbsp