Illinois Surgical Quality Improvement Collaborative and Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Announce Collaboration to Minimize Opioi...
December 14 2017 - 7:30AM
The Illinois Surgical Quality Improvement Collaborative (ISQIC), a
nationally recognized partnership of 56 Illinois hospitals, and
Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCRX), today announced an
initiative to jointly develop programs and resources that will
support best practice pain management prescribing for surgical
patients throughout the State of Illinois. The focus of the
initiative is to develop and provide intensive, interactive
educational tools for hospitals in order to improve adherence to
evidence-based best practices for perioperative pain management.
ISQIC and Pacira will work in collaboration to minimize opioid
prescribing across the spectrum of surgical care by focusing on
four key elements, namely: setting appropriate pain management
expectations preoperatively; patient assessment, including
screening for addictive behavior; optimizing perioperative pain
control while minimizing or eliminating opioid use; and weaning
patients from opioids as early as possible.
“This collaboration is a great opportunity to impact opioid
prescribing in surgical care. We are excited to develop and
implement critically-needed educational tools that will improve
pain management prescribing throughout the Illinois Surgical
Quality Improvement Collaborative,” said Karl Bilimoria, MD, MS, a
surgical oncologist and director of the Illinois Surgical Quality
Improvement Collaborative.
“A surgical encounter is often the first time a patient is
exposed to opioids, and it therefore represents an opportunity for
us to assure that patients receive adequate education about the
risks involved in taking opioid medications and about safe storage
and disposal practices,” said Jonah Stulberg, MD, PhD, a general
surgeon leading the opioid reduction initiatives for ISQIC.
In Illinois alone, of the 2,278 statewide drug overdose deaths
that occurred during 2016, over 80 percent (or 1,826 occurrences)
were opioid-related fatalities.1 According to a recent JAMA Surgery
study, more than two-thirds of postsurgical patients report unused
prescription opioids—and the majority indicate that these
medications are neither safely stored nor disposed of—suggesting a
dangerous accumulation of opioids in the home, which are available
for potential diversion or misuse.2 Therefore, surgeons have
the opportunity to make a substantial impact on the opioid crisis
and the health of their patients by minimizing opioid prescribing
in the perioperative period and by providing adequate patient
education.
“We look forward to collaborating with ISQIC on this joint
commitment to decrease postsurgical reliance on opioids, and
ultimately improve the patient recovery experience,” said Dave
Stack, chairman and chief executive officer of Pacira
Pharmaceuticals. “We are hopeful that this comprehensive
initiative, which encompasses presurgical consultation and
assessment, patient and provider education, and the implementation
of evidence-based protocols, will become a model for hospitals
across the state of Illinois and beyond.”
About ISQIC ISQIC is a nationally recognized
partnership of 56 Illinois hospitals, the Illinois and Metropolitan
Chicago Chapters of the American College of Surgeons, the American
College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program
(ACS NSQIP), the Surgical Outcomes and Quality Improvement Center
(SOQIC) at Northwestern University, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Illinois. ISQIC supports participating hospitals in successfully
implementing data-driven quality improvement initiatives by
equipping hospitals with the tools needed to leverage their data
and to develop targeted improvement strategies, ultimately
resulting in improved surgical quality of care throughout Illinois.
Additional information about ISQIC is available at
www.isqic.org.
About PaciraPacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
(NASDAQ:PCRX) is a specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to
advancing and improving postsurgical outcomes for acute care
practitioners and their patients. The company’s flagship product,
EXPAREL® (bupivacaine liposome injectable suspension) was
commercially launched in the United States in April 2012. EXPAREL
utilizes DepoFoam®, a unique and proprietary product delivery
technology that encapsulates drugs without altering their molecular
structure, and releases them over a desired period of time. To
learn more about Pacira, including the corporate mission to reduce
overreliance on opioids, visit www.pacira.com.
Forward Looking StatementsAny statements in
this press release about the company’s future expectations, plans,
outlook and prospects, and other statements containing the words
“believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “estimates,” “expects,”
“intends,” “may” and similar expressions, constitute
forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ
materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements
as a result of various important factors, including risks relating
to: the success of the company’s sales and manufacturing efforts in
support of the commercialization of EXPAREL; the rate and degree of
market acceptance of EXPAREL and the company’s other products; the
size and growth of the potential markets for EXPAREL and the
company’s ability to serve those markets; the company’s plans to
expand the use of EXPAREL to additional indications and
opportunities, and the timing and success of any related clinical
trials; the related timing and success of United States Food and
Drug Administration supplemental New Drug Applications; the outcome
of the U.S. Department of Justice inquiry; the company’s plans to
evaluate, develop and pursue additional DepoFoam-based product
candidates; clinical trials in support of an existing or potential
DepoFoam-based product; the company’s commercialization and
marketing capabilities; the company’s and Patheon UK Limited’s
ability to successfully and timely construct dedicated EXPAREL
manufacturing suites; and other factors discussed in the “Risk
Factors” of the company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 and in other filings
that the company periodically makes with the SEC. In addition, the
forward-looking statements included in this press release represent
the company’s views as of the date of this press release. Important
factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those
indicated or implied by forward-looking statements, and as such the
company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will
cause its views to change. However, while the company may elect to
update these forward-looking statements at some point in the
future, it specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These
forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as
representing the company’s views as of any date subsequent to the
date of this press release.
1 Illinois Department of Human Services. The Opioid Crisis in
Illinois: Data and the State’s Response. Published online June 2,
2017.
http://www.dhs.state.il.us/OneNetLibrary/27896/documents/OpioidCrisisInIllinois_051617.pdf2
JAMA Surg. Published online August 2, 2017.
doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2017.0831
Media Contacts:
Illinois Surgical Quality Improvement Collaborative (ISQIC)
Remi Love, (312) 694-7742
rlove@isqic.org
Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Amber Sears, (973) 254-3587
amber.sears@pacira.com
Coyne Public Relations
Alyssa Schneider, (973) 588-2270
aschneider@coynepr.com
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