Glycerol phenylbutyrate (USAN), trade name  Ravicti, is a medication used in the treatment of certain inborn urea cycle disorders. The medication works by preventing the harmful buildup of ammonia in the body. It is an FDA-approved prescription drug in the US. It is approved for anyone over 2 months of age. It was developed by Hyperion Therapeutics based on the existing drug Buphenyl, and received approval on February 1, 2013. Hyperion has been criticized for setting a high price for the drug. The price was set at US$250,000–290,000. In 2014, the drug generated $30.8 million in net sales, far behind the older and less expensive Buphenyl ($113.6 million in sales). In March 2015, Horizon Pharma acquired Hyperion Therapeutics and thus Raviciti. References
External links
"Glycerol phenylbutyrate". Drug Information Portal. U.S. National Library of Medicine.
The U.S. drug overdose death rate has gone from 2.5 per 100,000 people in 1968 to 21.5 per 100,000 in 2019.The National Center for Health Statistics reports that 19,250 people died of accidental poisoning in the U.S. in the year 2004 (eight deaths per 100,000 population).In 2008 testimony before a Senate subcommittee, Leonard J. Paulozzi, a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that in 2005 more than 22,000 American people died due to overdoses, and the number is growing rapidly. Paulozzi also testified that all available evidence suggests unintentional overdose deaths are related to the increasing use of prescription drugs, especially opioid painkillers. However, the vast majority of overdoses are also attributable to alcohol. It is very rare for a victim of an overdose to have consumed just one drug. Most overdoses occur when drugs are ingested in combination with alcohol.Drug overdose was the leading cause of injury death in 2013. Among people 25 to 64 years old, drug overdose caused more deaths than motor vehicle traffic crashes. There were 43,982 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2013. Of these, 22,767 (51.8%) were related to prescription drugs.The 22,767 deaths relating to prescription drug overdose in 2013, 16,235 (71.3%) involved opioid painkillers, and 6,973 (30.6%) involved benzodiazepines. Drug misuse and abuse caused about 2.5 million emergency department (ED) visits in 2011. Of these, more than 1.4 million ED visits were related to prescription drugs.