(Reuters) - Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc said U.S. health regulators approved its drug to relieve post-surgical pain, a move that may limit the use of opioids in post-operative setting.
Opioids -- which include morphine, fentanyl and oxycodone, and are widely used as painkillers -- are powerful narcotics that can be highly addictive and prone to widespread abuse.
Pacira's drug Exparel contains a commonly used local analgesic, bupivacaine, which is released using the company's drug delivery technology, DepoFoam.
Parsippany, New Jersey-based Pacira's drug delivery technology extends the duration of analgesia, or relief from pain, provided by bupivacaine.
In clinical trials, Exparel provided relief from pain for up to 72 hours, compared with bupivacaine's analgesic timeline of seven hours or less.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had originally set an action date of July 28 on Exparel, but it extended its review period by three months as it needed more time to review additional information that was submitted by the company.
Shares of Pacira, which went public in January, closed at $10.18 on Friday on Nasdaq.
(Reporting by Anand Basu and Esha Dey in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)
