Elite Pharmaceuticals Inc announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Elite Laboratories, Inc. has developed an opioid antagonist product to be used with oxycodone and other opioids to minimize the abuse potential of the opioids. A patent application has been filed for this product and the Phase I trial is expected to begin shortly.

Elite has previously announced that it has developed a once-a-day oxycodone product. That product has completed a Phase I study that showed comparable bioavailability to the twice-daily reference product that is currently marketed. The currently marketed reference product has US sales exceeding $1 billion.

Dr. Atul Mehta, the President and CEO of Elite stated, "Abuse of controlled release opioids such as oxycodone has become of significant concern and our technology has the potential to deter such abuse."