As the grim toll of opioid overdose deaths has risen steadily in Maryland and across the country, public health officials increasingly have urged that the anti-overdose medication Narcan, also known as naloxone, be made more widely available to addicts and their caregivers. The antidote, taken in the form of either a nasal spray or an injection, can quickly revive overdose victims after they’ve stopped breathing, and Baltimore officials credit it with preventing more than 800 people in the city alone from succumbing to fatal overdoses in recent years.
But with the drug’s life-saving successes has also come a cruel dilemma in the form of rapidly spiraling price hikes for even the generic version of the drug. The price of a common injectible version is up 500 percent in the last two years, and the price of the nasal spray Baltimore’s health department uses is up more than 60 percent. That has health officials worried that rising costs will deny the the opportunity to exploit the drug’s full life-saving potential by training as many people as possible in its use and distributing it not only to first responders and health professionals but also to ordinary citizens — friends and family of drug users — who might be in a position to rescue an overdose victim.
As The Sun’s Meredith Cohn reported, the rapidly rising cost of naloxone threatens to push the drug out of reach for such people, who are on the front lines of the fight against opioid drug overdoses and have the potential to play a crucial role in its outcome.
The pharmaceutical companies deny they’re gouging consumers as the demand for their product grows, but health officials in Maryland and elsewhere say the companies haven’t offered any explanation for the sudden price increases other than to say that consumers rarely pay full price and that sales also support charitable programs to give the drug away. Even if that’s true, states and municipalities shouldn’t have to depend on the pharmaceutical industry’s charity to protect the lives of their citizens.
Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen points out that the price of naloxone "has more that doubled in past couple of years, and we’ve seen no reason for this. Yet we have to make huge decisions about who to give the medication to. We want to expand the effort to every person who can benefit from it because for every 11 kits we give out one life is saved. That’s a phenomenal success rate from a public health standpoint."
Naloxone isn’t the answer to the opioid crisis, of course. Treatment and efforts to prevent people from getting hooked on the prescription painkillers that have become gateway drugs for heroin and fentanyl are essential. But you can’t get someone who dies from an overdose into treatment, and that’s why efforts to expand the availability of naloxone are so important.
Researchers at the Yale University School of Medicine and the Mayo Clinic recently suggested that state and local governments pressure the drug companies to reverse price increases, or at least explain them. They also suggested that the federal government could buy naloxone in bulk from manufacturers to stabilize prices and encourage competition, a strategy it successfully used for the antibiotic ciprofloxacin during the 2001 anthrax scare. The government could also allow the sale of imported naloxone, encourage other manufacturers to market the drug and approve naloxone for over the counter sales.
Healthcare advocates who are pushing for bills to combat rising prescription drug prices in Maryland drew sympathy but also skepticism from state lawmakers Wednesday.
The General Assembly is considering a pair of bills. One would require drug companies to give notice of and explain significant…
Healthcare advocates who are pushing for bills to combat rising prescription drug prices in Maryland drew sympathy but also skepticism from state lawmakers Wednesday.
The General Assembly is considering a pair of bills. One would require drug companies to give notice of and explain significant…
Rep. Elijah Cummings and Sen. Bernie Sanders have called for an investigation into the price of generic drugs, including naloxone, and the causes of their rapidly rising prices. They need to get to the bottom of it. Officials from Gov. Larry Hogan on down have identified the opioid epidemic as a public health emergency in Maryland, and the state and local governments need to be able to secure a stable, predictable supply of a drug that can prevent the epidemic’s worst consequences.
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