The Washington Post reports that the Biden Administration is preparing to pull back recent Health and Human Services (HHS) guidance designed to expand access to prescribing buprenorphine for opioid use disorders (OUD).

On January 14, 2021, HHS published Practice Guidelines for the Administration of Buprenorphine for Treating Opioid Use Disorder.  In a nutshell the guidelines eliminated certain X-waiver certification requirements, allowing any DEA-registered prescriber to issue buprenorphine prescriptions for medication-assisted treatment of OUDs.  The HHS notice does not reference any coordination with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and DEA has yet to publicly comment on this change.
Continue Reading Not So Fast: Biden Expected to Halt Expansion of Buprenorphine Prescribing

In a decision issued on October 30, Judge Joseph Goodwin of the Southern District of West Virginia dissolved an Order of Immediate Suspension of Registration (“ISO”) issued by DEA against Oak Hill Hometown Pharmacy, a West Virginia pharmacy. Without getting too far into the factual weeds of this case, I do think there are two or three critical takeaways related to both the adjudication of this matter and to DEA’s view of Subutex vs. Suboxone.
Continue Reading Judge Dissolves ISO Against West Virginia Pharmacy: Suspicion Of Diversion Not Enough to Support Suspension