The move is part of a multi-pronged strategy by the Obama administration to tame an epidemic of abuse and death tied to opioid painkillers like Vicodin and OxyContin. But physician groups see a requirement to check databases before prescribing popular drugs for pain, anxiety and other ailments as being overly burdensome.
The makers of the potent painkiller OxyContin have pulled out of a federal meeting to review the company's harder-to-abuse version of the much-debated drug.