Acura shares slide on stinging FDA staff review of Acurox

Shares of Acura Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ACUR) tumbled 21 percent after staffers at the FDA questioned whether its pain drug, Acurox, was actually designed to deter abuse or simply negatively affected the adverse event profile of the therapy. In a stinging review, regulators questioned Acura's combination of oxycodone and niacin, a B vitamin that can trigger discomforting flushing in patients at high doses. "Niacin offers little in the way of deterrence to oral abuse," wrote staffers, raising...