Studies from the Rand Corp. have found that the remanufacturing of an opioid into an abuse-deterrent formulation was a key contributing factor in the heroin epidemic and related overdoses in the United States, and in the surge in hepatitis C virus infections.
After concluding from one study “that the recent heroin epidemic is largely due to the reformulation of OxyContin [oxycodone extended release, Purdue; Am Econ J 2018;10(4):1-35],” researchers sought to determine whether those