The FDA authorized use of injectable naltrexone for opioid addiction using a single study that was led by Evgeny Krupitsky at Bekhterev Research Psychoneurological Institute, St Petersburg State Pavlov Medical University, St Petersburg, Russia, a country where opioid agonists such as methadone and buprenorphine are not available. The study was a "double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized", 24-week trial running "from July 3, 2008, through October 5, 2009" with "250 patients with opioid dependence disorder" at "13 clinical sites in Russia" on the use of injectable naltrexone (XR-NTX) for opioid dependence. The study was funded by the Boston-based biotech Alkermes firm which produces and markets naltrexone in the United States. A 2011 article reported that this single trial of naltrexone was performed not by comparing it to the best available, evidence-based treatment (methadone or buprenorphine), but by comparing it with a placebo. A subsequent RCT in Norway did compare injectable naltrexone to buprenorphine and found them to be similar in outcomes.