Acura Pharmaceuticals has been issued U.S. Patent No. 8,901,113 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

The claims in the patent cover, among other inventions, Acura’s IMPEDE® Technology, a unique polymer matrix that disrupts the conversion of pseudoephedrine into the dangerous drug, methamphetamine. This is the first issued U.S. patent directed at Acura’s IMPEDE technology and products utilizing that technology.

IMPEDE technology is incorporated in Acura’s marketed product NEXAFED® (pseudoephedrine HCl) tablets, a methamphetamine-resistant product and the soon to be launched NEXAFED Pressure + Pain (pseudoephedrine HCl and acetaminophen) product. There is growing evidence suggesting that when pharmacies replace traditional single ingredient pseudoephedrine products with meth-resistant products like NEXAFED, there is a measurable decrease in local methamphetamine production.