Long Acting Buprenorphine Injection Compared to Sublingual Buprenorphine/Naloxone Films

Overview

While substance use disorders have been found to have relapse rates on part with other chronic illnesses such as hypertension and asthma long term abstinence remains elusive for many. The FDA has recently approve a long acting subcutaneous injectable formulation of buprenorphine. This study aims to determine the feasibility of enrolling and randomizing patients seeking treatment at an outpatient substance abuse clinic to buprenorphine/naloxone films which dissolve under the tongue vs. long acting buprenorphine injection with all other treatment aspects held constant. The study also aims to determine the effectiveness of monthly injections of Sublocade® compared to daily oral Suboxone® SL therapy in the treatment of moderate to severe opioid use disorder after twenty-four weeks of treatment.

While substance use disorders have been found to have relapse rates on part with other chronic illnesses such as hypertension and asthma long term abstinence remains elusive for many. Fortunately, the FDA has recently approved a long acting subcutaneous injectable formulation of buprenorphine. While this drug has proven effective in retaining patients in care and decreasing drug cravings as compared to placebo, this drug has not been tested in a real world clinic setting and no studies exist comparing it to the current formulations of buprenorphine. The objective of this study is to perform a randomized pilot study directly comparing sublingual buprenorphine/naloxone to long acting buprenorphine subdermal injection in a standard Office-Based Opioid Agonist Treatment (OBOT) clinic. The study team will compare patient retention, percentage of negative urinary drug screens, and withdrawal scores between the two groups. The findings will provide insight for US providers seeking more effective and efficient ways to treat Opioid use disorder (OUD) in the outpatient setting.

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