Acura Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ACUR) and its partner Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) are due to hear from the Food and Drug Administration about the approvability of their abuse-resistant pain medication Acurox tomorrow. Whether the companies will be feeling a post-approval buzz or abused by the FDA again remains to be seen.

Acura and King Pharmaceuticals, which Pfizer recently purchased, tried to gain FDA approval for Acurox back in 2009. The medication combines Purdue Pharmaceuticals' OxyContin with an abuse-resistant technology from Acura that makes it hard for drug abusers to extract the active ingredient, oxycodone.

At the time, the duo was also adding niacin to the drug to deter abuse. Niacin is the active ingredient in Abbott Labs' (NYSE: ABT) cholesterol drug Niaspan, but it has a side effect that causes patients to become unpleasantly flush, especially if you take enough of it. The FDA and a subsequent FDA advisory panel weren't convinced that the niacin wasn't doing more harm than good, so the drugmakers removed that aspect of Acurox.

But the drama only continued. When the companies resubmitted last year, the FDA said it wanted more information about the ability of addicts to snort the drug. We won't know for certain whether the companies have satisfied the agency until it hands down its ruling.

There's clearly a need for these abuse-resistant pain drugs, but it's been a drawn-out process proving to the FDA that they really do what they're supposed to. King, Pain Therapeutics (Nasdaq: PTIE), and DURECT (Nasdaq: DRRX) have been trying to gain FDA approval for their abuse-resistant pain drug, Remoxy, since 2008. They're scheduled to hear back from the FDA about their latest attempt next week.

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