Buprenorphine-associated deaths in Singapore.

Introduction Buprenorphine is a thebaine derivative that was developed in the 1970s for pain relief. It was approved for substitution therapy in France in 1996, and in the USA in 2002. In Singapore, sublingual buprenorphine (2 and 8 mg tablets) has been available since 2002 for the treatment of opioid addiction, under the brand name Subutex. It is registered as a prescription-only medicine, but (at the time of writing of this paper) it is not a controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA), Chapter 185, Statutes of the Republic of Singapore. Buprenorphine is also available under the brand name Temgesic for the relief of severe pain, as 0.2 mg sublingual tablets or as an injectable form in ampoules.