Transdermal Buprenorphine for Opiate Antagonist Therapy

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Opiate antagonist therapy is an important treatment for recently withdrawn narcotic addicts. Buprenorphine is a drug with mixed agonist-antagonist properties, which eliminates physiological reinforcement by preventing any subjective reward from morphine-like drugs. Buprenorphine is very effective and is preferred by subjects to either methadone or naltrexone. BIOTEK proposes to improve buprenorphine therapy by developing a 3-day transdermal delivery system. A buprenorphine patch would avoid the inconvenience of frequent clinical visits, and steady maintenance of the agonist action of buprenorphine should motivate compliance by providing more positive reinforcement. BIOTEK has previously demonstrated high transdermal delivery rates for buprenorphine. Recent results from a study of human subjects using BIOTEK's injectable buprenorphine microcapsules suggest that effective opiate blockade can be maintained by a much lower buprenorphine dose rate than previously thought necessary. It is the purpose of the proposed program to develop an effective antagonist patch containing too little buprenorphine to be an attractive target for subversion or abuse.