The U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been provided with plans from manufacturers of 24-different prescription painkillers for curbing opioid drug abuse.

FDA has been pressurizing these pharmaceutical companies to figure out a way of stopping the hundreds of fatal medication overdoses that occur each year.

According to the Associated Press, executives from Johnson & Johnson, King Pharmaceuticals, including other drug makers have proposed patient medication guides, letters to doctors, as well as, giving additional training to physicians for putting an end to the misuse and inappropriate prescription of painkillers, such as, morphine, oxycodone and methadone.

FDA officials via letters to 16-companies February, ordered them to put together risk-management plans for their drugs, first time the agency has required a risk-management plan for an entire class of drugs. The drug manufacturers, after several months of discussions, presented their joint proposals to the agency.

A problems of great significance, a 2007 survey found 5.2-million Americans reported inappropriate use of prescription painkillers, which are typically approved for people who required round-the- clock treatment for moderate to severe chronic pain, such as, cancer patients.

Dr. John Jenkins, Director of the FDA’s Office of New Drugs, a part of the Centre for Drug Evaluation and Research says uninformed patients, who are not aware how the drugs are to be taken, can cause significant harm to themselves.

In addition to patient misuse, there are many documented unapproved use cases of potent painkillers being prescribed for migraines, including patients sometimes being given chew extended- release pills designed for swallowing, causing an accidental overdose of the drug.

FDA will hold more meetings with the industry group, doctors and the public next year.