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Monday, April 25th, 2016

A drug to treat opioid overdose is now more available than ever. But why is its price skyrocketing?

Author:     Hunter
Source:     Daily Kos
Publication Date:     2016/04/23 · 08:00
 Link: A drug to treat opioid overdose is now more available than ever. But why is its price skyrocketing?
Stephan:   This story is, at one level, very good news. A drug that can save people who have overdosed on opiates is more widely available. Bravo. But beneath that happy surface lies the breathtaking scumbuggery of the Pharmaceutical Industry. This is what comes of controlling the government that regulates you when profit is the only priority. Remember the stories I did a few days ago, one about the increase in type II diabetes, the other on the correlated increase in the price of insulin? Well here is the replication. In science we like replication; it tells us our hypotheses are confirmed. And quite apart from the data is the moral and ethical vileness of jacking up the price. Our drug pricing contrasts so starkly with that of every other developed nation, and takes up such a large part of our economy, that it ought to be part of the Presidential debate.
Credit: Reuters

Credit: Reuters

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 […]

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