Abuse potential reduction in abusable substance dosage form
View Patent ↗The potential for substance abuse involving residual amounts of abusable substances remaining in used skin-worn patches is reduced by the provision of a system and method for combining the abusable substance with a separate anti-abuse substance agent as part of a removal or disposal procedure.
1. A system for reducing potential for substance abuse from a skin-worn transdermal patch device containing residual amounts of an abusable substance after administration to a first user, said system comprising:
(a) an anti-abuse layer containing an amount of an anti-abuse substance for said abusable substance in said patch device selected from the group consisting of co-soluble antagonists, irritants and combinations thereof disposed in said patch device;
(b) an abusable substance layer containing an amount of said abusable substance in said patch device spaced from said layer containing said anti-abuse substance;
(c) a separator membrane situated between said abusable substance layer and said anti abuse layer preventing contact therebetween; and
(d) a connector configured to automatically remove said separator membrane from said patch upon detachment of said patch device from a user thereby allowing said anti abuse layer to contact said abusable substance layer.
2. A system as in claim 1 wherein said anti-abuse substance includes an amount of an irritant.
3. A system as in claim 1 wherein said anti-abuse substance includes an antagonist.
4. A system as in claim 1 wherein said connector is configured to adhesively attach to a user's skin and pull said separator from said patch upon detachment of said patch from said user's skin.
5. A system as in claim 1 wherein said anti-abuse layer further comprises an adsorption agent that prevents later extraction of the abusable substance.
6. A system as in claim 1 wherein said anti-abuse layer further comprises activated carbon.
7. A system as in claim 1 further comprising a patch adhesive overlayer which attaches the transdermal patch device to the skin.
8. A system as in claim 7 wherein said connector is configured to adhesively attach to a user's skin and pull said separator membrane from said patch upon detachment of said patch adhesive overlayer from said user's skin.
9. A method for reducing potential for substance abuse from a skin-worn transdermal patch device using the system of claim 1 comprising:
detaching said patch device from a user and thereby causing the connector to remove the separator membrane from between the anti-abuse layer and the abusable substance layer.