INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Naloxone, a medication known as the “overdose antidote,” can reverse the effects of an overdose from opioid drugs like heroin, Vicodin, OxyContin and morphine. Although Naloxone has saved tens of thousands of lives, and has been approved for use against drug overdose by the Food and Drug Administration since 1971, it’s typically only administered by medical professionals.
That began to change last April, when the FDA fast-tracked the approval of a device called Evzio. The device administers Naloxone as an auto-injectible, similar to the way epinephrine can be injected with an EpiPen. And it’s going to be widely available to universities, colleges, community organizations and local police and emergency authorities at a cost comparable to the federal supply schedule pricing — in other words, near the lowest possible cost that a federal institution, such as Medicare or the Department of Veterans Affairs, would pay for the device.
The rollout is a collaboration between Kaleo, the pharmaceutical company that invented the device, and the Clinton Foundation’s Health Matters Initiative. It was announced at a panel session Monday, the second day of the Clinton Foundation Health Matters Summit. Speaking at the panel session, former President Bill Clinton described the initiative as “something which I think will save a lot of lives.”
“In five years, the goal is to save 10,000 lives per year,” said Kaleo CEO Spencer Williamson in an interview with The Huffington Post prior to the announcement. More than 16,000 people died from opioid drug overdose in 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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In 2014, the LA Community Health Project conducted 652 trainings in overdose prevention and Naloxone administration, and at least 77 lives have since been saved as a result, according to Scholar. The majority of those overdose reversals, she said, were cases either of drug users saving each other’s lives, or family caregivers saving the lives of someone they loved.
At Evzio’s current cost, Scholar can only afford to train community members with generic injectable Naloxone. But if the eventual discount proves significant, she might consider stocking up.
“If it were possible to lower the rates significantly today, tomorrow it would be in the hands of people who are most likely to be at the event of an opioid overdose,” Scholar wrote in an email to HuffPost. “We need to keep the volume of the Naloxone we distribute at the level it is at or higher to meet the increased demand.”
