Elite Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced the issuance of US patent no. 9,056,054 entitled "Abuse-Resistant Oral Dosage Forms". This patent expands the intellectual property for the company's opioid abuse deterrent technology.

Elite now has four US patents and two Canadian patents issued in this area with additional patents pending in the US, Canada and Europe.

"We are pleased with this additional patent coverage," stated Nasrat Hakim, president and chief executive officer of Elite. "This patent expands the number of families of patents that have issued in the United States to Elite which cover abuse deterrent technologies."

Elite's proprietary abuse resistant technology, ART, is a multi-particulate capsule which contains an opioid agonist in addition to naltrexone, an opioid antagonist used primarily in the management of alcohol dependence and opioid dependence. When this product is taken as intended, the naltrexone is designed to pass through the body unabsorbed while the opioid agonist is released providing therapeutic pain relief for which it is prescribed. If the multi-particulate beads are crushed or dissolved, the naltrexone is designed to be released from the formulation. The absorption of the naltrexone is intended to block the euphoria felt by a potential abuser by preferentially binding to the same receptors in the brain as the opioid agonist and thereby reducing the incentive for abuse or misuse by recreational drug abusers. Elite's pharmacological approach to abuse-deterrence can be applied to a wide range of opioids used today in pain management.

Elite Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is a specialty pharmaceutical company which is developing a pipeline of proprietary pharmacological abuse-deterrent opioid products as well as niche generic products.