# Prescription Opioid Formulation to Deter Extraction, Injection, Insufflation, and Smoking

> **NIH NIH R21** · PURDUE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $193,750

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT:
In the United States, there are currently more prescriptions for opioids than there are people. The number of
deaths caused by drug overdoses continues to increase, with more than 60% involving prescription opioids. As
a result, an estimated 42,000 people will be lost to the drug epidemic this year alone. What often begins as a
temporary relief of pain can transition into an addiction that requires increased doses or a more efficient means
of getting the drug into the person's system. Thus, patients have developed methods for processing the
prescription pills to prepare them for alternative routes of administration such as injection, insufflation, or
smoking. However, these alternative routes of administration can cause unsafe blood serum levels of the drug
and lead to an overdose. Therefore, we propose to develop a novel abuse deterrent formulation (ADF) that will
be uniquely designed to prevent abuse of the prescription pill. The proposal will be performed in 2 aims. The
first aim will focus on the development of the ADF formulation with design aspects specifically focused on
abuse through insufflation, smoking, injection and taking multiple pills. In Aim 2 we will focus on validating the
design by putting the pill through a rigorous test following the procedures outlined by the FDA Abuse-Deterrent
Opioids-Evaluation and Labeling guidelines. Our proposed studies will result in the development of a novel
ADF formulation that will be resistant to a wide range of tampering, resulting in a safer formulation and pill
design.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9893842
- **Project number:** 5R21DA048074-02
- **Recipient organization:** PURDUE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Luis Solorio
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $193,750
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-03-15 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9893842

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9893842, Prescription Opioid Formulation to Deter Extraction, Injection, Insufflation, and Smoking (5R21DA048074-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9893842. Licensed CC0.

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