Safety and Tolerability of Buprenorphine/Naloxone Film Strips

Buprenorphine and naloxone soluble film was developed as an alternative dosage form to Suboxone (buprenorphine and naloxone) sublingual tablets and was evaluated for both sublingual and buccal administration. The soluble film dosage is expected to provide the following enhancements and potential advantages over the current Suboxone (buprenorphine and naloxone) product:

• mitigation against unintentional pediatric exposure by providing child-resistant packaging in unit dose format.
• improvement in subject convenience and compliance by ensuring rapid disintegration.
• protection against diversion by providing a dosage form that is very difficult for the subject to remove from the sublingual or buccal mucosa after administration. This provides assurance to the caregiver that the dose has actually been taken appropriately in a supervised setting.
• provision of a unit dose product format for hospital and institutional use.
• decreased product damage during shipping as compared to Suboxone tablets.

Inclusion criteria

Subjects must:

• Be 18-to-65 years of age, inclusive.
• Have a diagnosis of opioid dependence by medical history according to DSM-IV-TR criteria.
• Be on stable dose of 4 to 32 mg (expressed as the buprenorphine component)daily of Suboxone for at least 30 days.
• If female, have a negative pregnancy test during screening and agree to use an acceptable method of birth control which may include:

Exclusion criteria

Subjects must not:

• Have participated in an experimental drug or device study within the last 30 days.
• If female, be breast feeding or lactating.
• Have any medical condition that in the opinion of the physician investigator would preclude the subject from completing the study.
• Have a clinically significant abnormal finding (in the opinion of the Investigator) on oral cavity exam (e.g., active mouth ulcers).
• Have any piercing of the tongue or mouth within 30 days prior to the first dose of study medication.