PILL POPPIN ON THE NEXT LEVEL! DRUG 10X STRONGER THAN VICODIN IS ABOUT TO HIT THE MARKET!

Pharmaceutical companies are cooking up a prescription painkiller that’s far more powerful than Vicodin, the Associated Press reports.

Treatment for prescription painkiller abuse has skyrocketed 430% over the last ten years, federal statistics show, and addiction experts and drug control advocates are concerned the proposed mega-dose opiate will make things worse.

Vicodin and OxyContin both contain hydrocodone as their potent ingredient, but Vicodin is mixed with acetominophen.

"I have a big concern that this could be the next OxyContin," April Rovero, president of the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse told the AP. "We just don't need this on the market."

Four drug companies have begun patient testing. The San Diego based pharmaceutical firm Zogenix plans to begin marketing its product, Zohyadro, in early 2013. The companies Perdue Pharma, Cephalon, and Egalet are developing their own versions of the super-powered painkiller, the AP reported.

Critics are especially concerned that even though Zohyadro will be manufactured in a time-release form, the pills could be easily crushed for an instantaneous high - or a deadly overdose.

According to data from the Drug Enforcement Administration, emergency room visits related to hydrocodone spiked from 19,221 in 2000 to 86,258 in 2009.

"You've got a person on your product for life, and a doctor's got a patient who's never going to miss an appointment, because if they did and they didn't get their prescription, they would feel very sick," Andrew Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing said.

"It's a terrific business model, and that's what these companies want to get in on," he added.

Zogenix chief executive Roger Hawley said at a conference with investors in New York last week that Zohydro would actually be a safer painkiller than Vicodin because acetaminophen can be dangerous to the liver.

SOURCE