Elite Pharmaceuticals Inc (ELTP)

[Couch]

Additional tangential correlates to why Elite is coming out with microtablet ART.

More Than Half of Hospitalized Patients Given Opioids

http://www.empr.com/more-than-half-of-hospitalized-patients-given-opioids/article/321871/


http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb6.pdf

Persons age 65 and older had more hospital stays than any other age group in 2003. While the elderly comprised about 12 percent of the U.S. population,* they accounted for one out of three hospital stays (13.2 million hospitalizations) and 43.6 percent of the national hospital bill—nearly $329 billion.


Prescription Opioid Abuse in the Elderly an Urgent Concern

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/776128

At 38 million, individuals older than 65 years make up 13% of the US population, and this number is expected to increase by 7% to 10% by 2020. Furthermore, the elderly currently use one third of all medications prescribed, and data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) indicate that 2.8 million seniors abused prescription drugs in the last year. SAMHSA estimates suggest that this number is expected to reach over 4.4 million by 2020.

"As the baby boomers move into the geriatric age range, they are going to be more amenable to taking drugs to alleviate pain than their parents were," Dr. Trevisan told Medscape Medical News.


Prescription Opioid Abuse In The Elderly An Urgent Concern

http://www.narconon-news.org/blog/2013/01/prescription-opioid-abuse-in-the-elderly-an-urgent-concern/

Not only are prescription opioids extremely addictive, older bodies have slower metabolisms and therefore are more susceptible to dependency.


Opiates and elderly: Use and side effects

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2546472/

Pharmacokinetic actions of drug absorption, distribution, and elimination are more measurable. In general, the rate at which certain drugs are absorbed can be altered in the elderly because of decreased gastrointestinal transit time and increased gastric pH secondary to use of proton pump inhibitors, H2 receptor antagonist, or antacids. With aging, there are changes in body composition: increase in adipose tissue, decrease in lean body mass and decrease in total body water. These changes can affect drug distribution. Therefore, lipophilic drugs tend to have greater volume of distribution, and it can take more time to be eliminated from the body (Linnebur et al 2005). Aging can also bring reduction in hepatic blood flow and volume which can decrease metabolism of drugs (Tegeder et al 1999; AGS 2006). Additional impairments in drug metabolism can occur with impaired Phase I reactions which include oxidation, hydroxylation, and dealkylation (Tegeder et al 1999). This can specifically reduce the first pass affect of opiates in elderly (Tegeder et al 1999). Elimination of drugs can be altered with age related reductions in renal blood flow and glomerular filtration rate. For opiates that have primary renal clearance, such as morphine and hydromorphone, decreases in GFR lead to more side effects (Davies et al 1996). The above changes generally cause drugs used in elderly to be more potent and have a longer duration of action than predicted.