Results of Australia’s first injectable opioid treatment trial announced at 2025 APSAD conference

Media Release                                  11^th November 2025

The results of Australia’s first injectable opioid treatment trial were revealed at the 2025 APSAD (The Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs) conference in Sydney today.

Two presentations today outlined the initial findings of the trial – one by Dr Jake Rance, Centre for Social Research in Health at UNSW on ‘The ‘acceptability’ of supervised injectable opioid treatment: Staff and participant reflections from the Australian ‘Feasibility of Injectable Opioid Treatment’ (FOpIT) and the other by Dr Craig Rodgers on the initial outcomes of recruitment, retention and safety.

The study is a partnership between Uniting NSW.ACT, St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney (SVHS), and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and was made possible with funding from Uniting NSW.ACT along with support from an Australian National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) partnership grant and SVHS.

“FOpIT was an implementation trial to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a time-limited, integrated Supervised Injectable Opioid Treatment using injectable hydromorphone,” Professor Alison Ritter AO, Director of the Drug Policy Modelling Program (DPMP) at UNSW and co-author of the study said.

“Our hope is that the outcomes of this trial will become a key consideration in the design, evaluation & implementation of health-care interventions going forward,” she said.

“Australia has a system of providing opioid agonist treatment (OAT) to people with opioid use disorder , but the currently available forms of OAT, primarily methadone and buprenorphine, do not deliver optimal benefits to all people.

“Prescription of heroin for people with opioid dependence, referred to as ‘heroin-assisted treatment’, has been available in places such as the UK since the early 1900s and while an Australian heroin trial was proposed in the Australian Capital Territory  in 1996, it didn’t proceed for purely political reasons,” Professor Ritter said.

Dr Craig Rodgers, Senior Staff Specialist in Addiction Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital and co-author of the study said: “Of those in current available treatment, it is estimated that 5%–15% continue injecting illicit opioids and experience severe harms such as premature death, non-fatal overdose, violence and arrest, indicating that the current treatment system is not meeting the needs of all individuals affected by opioid use disorder.

“This trial demonstrated that the treatment is definitely feasible and is able to be conducted in standard opioid treatment programs with relative safety.

“The importance of relationships with staff featured prominently in most participant accounts, especially relative to previous OAT experiences,” he said.

“We would all like to thank the study participants for their unstinting generosity and thoughtful contributions, and the nursing staff who were unfailingly helpful in facilitating the research process,” Dr Rodgers said.

There was near universal praise and gratitude from the participants including statements such as: 

• “I’m really grateful to be where I am today & that’s because of FOpIT.”
• “Something I never even dreamt of - a godsend to us.”
• “We were really grateful for it. We wanted to stop [using heroin].”

“Given the recent weak response to the NSW Drug Summit Report by the NSW Government, further research like FOPiT, will continue to be extremely important to better help and keep people safe,” Dr Marianne Jauncey, Medical Director, Uniting’s Medically Supervised Injecting Centre  and co-author of the study said.

“It took a combination of a Church, a University and a Hospital to finally get this trial off the ground in Australia.

“We’re presenting these results for the community to create new treatment pathways to deliver a sense of hope and a sense of progress while our elected politicians continue to fail them with harmful, punitive drug policies.

“This treatment could be a game changer in Australia for people living with opioid dependence,” Dr Jauncey said.

Media Contacts:

St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney

Part of the NSW-based arm of St Vincent’s Health Australia, St Vincent’s Hospital provides significant training and research activities housing several specialty units that are internationally recognised as centres of excellence. These include heart and lung transplantation, bone marrow transplantation, cardiology, cancer care, AIDS/HIV, respiratory medicine, mental health and drug & alcohol services.

Uniting has run the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in Kings Cross for nearly 25 years and has spearheaded the Fair Treatment campaign for fairer drug laws for over seven years.

UNSW Sydney
UNSW Sydney is a global top 20 university, committed to improving lives through world-class education and high-impact research. A member of the prestigious Group of Eight (Go8), UNSW empowers tomorrow’s leaders to transform their talent and passion into careers that shape a better future.
 
The University has an international reputation for breakthroughs in areas such as health and equity, climate action, renewable energy and quantum technologies. UNSW’s mission is to make a positive impact by turning research into real-world solutions – advancing knowledge, transforming lives and driving progress for all.