The heroin epidemic is continuing to get worse around the U.S., and currently the anti-overdose drug naloxone is the main medication that can block the effects of opioids.
Amphastar Pharmaceuticals makes naloxone, and it has continued to increase the price as demand has gone up. It’s a business of course, and basically the only distributor of this kind of drug, so it makes sense that they want to (and can) make more profits. But when a drug is designed to save people’s lives in such dire circumstances, it is disconcerting that the rising price is now making it less available to the people who need it.
“When drug companies increase their prices and charge exorbitant rates, they decrease the access to the drug,” Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told NPR this summer. “There’s something awfully wrong with that picture.”
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As NPR reported, Baltimore is one of the cities that is putting a lot of energy into training people how to use the drug in its intranasal form, but the price hike is pretty serious. In February, the Baltimore City Health Department was reportedly paying about $20 a dose. By July, the price had climbed to nearly $40 a dose.
Naloxone was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1971 as an injectable medication, used primarily in hospital settings. The intranasal form, a nostril spray, hasn’t explicitly been approved by the FDA, but it’s being used.
Daniel Raymond, policy director for the Harm Reduction Coalition, was interviewed by All Things Considered‘s Audie Cornish about the subject and discussed some background on the situation and why he’s an advocate for better access to naloxone.
He mentioned that previously, the drug was really only available in the hospital setting, but now there are over 40 states that have passed laws facilitating access to naloxone and have first responders carrying it, and there’s community distribution.
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Raymond addressed the fact that Amphastar is the only one with a hand in producing the intranasal form of the drug, but that could soon change.
There are a couple companies that saw the need for an FDA-approved intranasal naloxone device. They’ve designed new devices that they’ve submitted to FDA for approval. So, I’m hoping by the end of the year, we’ll have one or two other intranasal naloxone devices available. The challenge will be whether these companies decide they want to compete on price, or they just want to take a share of the market.
Amphastar reportedly claims that it raised prices because of increased manufacturing costs, including a rise in the prices of raw materials, energy and labor. But hopefully this drug will still be a reasonable option for those who are desperately in need moving forward, perhaps with the help of more distributors getting involved.
Photo: Flickr user VCU CNS
