The good news is that as the Obama administration and numerous states tackle the ongoing opiate epidemic, an essential drug for treating opioid overdose when it happens is now being made far more available than it was a few years ago. Naloxone used to be a fixture only in emergency rooms, but is now being made more widely available to first responders like paramedics and police officers.
For decades, naloxone was only available by prescription or through emergency medical technicians at the time of an overdose. But some state and local governments have taken steps to make the reversal drug more accessible. Many law enforcement agencies are training the police to administer the drug; as of July 2015, officers in 28 states carried naloxone to reverse an overdose if they reached the scene before paramedics did. [...]
Since 2014, dozens of states have passed laws that allow Narcan to be bought directly from pharmacists without a doctor's visit. Other states allow third-party prescriptions, meaning friends or family members of users can get a prescription for someone they think is at risk.
Helping to push this trend along is $11 million made available from the Obama administration to distribute the drug and train first responders.
The bad news is that even as states invest in purchasing the drug and training those responders, the only maker of the nasal-spray form of the drug, Amphastar, has been jacking up the price without explanation.
The [New Jersey] state attorney general's office will look into the soaring retail price of the heroin overdose antidote Narcan, acting Attorney General Robert Lougy told NJ Advance Media Monday.
It's not the only state that's threatened legal action. Massachusetts reached a $325,000 settlement with Amphastar in 2015 after that state's attorney general threatened the company with action, and it's picked up attention in Congress as well.
"In May 2014, a 10-dose pack (of Narcan) cost the Baltimore City Health Department roughly $190," said U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland in his opening remarks at a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the heroin epidemic last month. "Guess what? Today, it costs more than $400 for a life-saving drug."
So that's a bit curious and will no doubt (ahem) continue to be looked into. In the meantime, however, more lives are being saved by quick access to a drug that can reverse opioid overdoses, and that's a welcome change.