By Briana Vannozzi
Correspondent
You can find it in the tool kit of almost any first responder — naloxone, better known as Narcan, the life saving antidote for heroin and opioid overdoses, was deployed roughly 10,000 times in New Jersey last year, according to the state. And as the opioid epidemic worsens, researchers say reversing an overdose is coming at a skyrocketing cost.
“We found that there are different formulations of the drug available in the U.S., but all across the board the price has increased as there’s been an increase in wanting to expand the availability of the drug,” said Ravi Gupta.
New research published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that in some cases, naloxone products shot up in price by as much as 500 percent. One of the study’s authors, Gupta, joined us by Skype from his medical rotation in South Africa.
“We also found that this may have had an effect on kind of limiting the increase in the number of sales of naloxone,” he said.
Meaning it may be cost prohibitive. Here’s what his team discovered. Manufacturers produce either a nasal spray, injectable or auto-injector formulation. The price increases range from a 95 to 500 percent change. But the team also found three other pharmaceutical company’s prices stayed the same. Gupta says it’s part of an overall trend of increasing prescription drug prices for both brand names and off-patent generics.
“I do have concerns about the continued price increase of naloxone. I think to show you why it’s complex, one is when we first started using it back in 2014, the cylinders were 2 millimeters meaning the dosage was different. Today’s dosage is 4 [millimeters] so they’ve doubled it and they’ve also reduced the water content,” said Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato.
So Ocean Country first responders are deploying one dose for a reversal instead of two, even three. Coronato says that could factor into new pricing.
“Also the delivery system seems to be changing. Before it wasn’t one component as it is now. Today you just pick up a little device and you’re able to spray it,” Coronato said.
Camden County just introduced legislation to supply Narcan in all schools. A leader with the county chiefs’ association says more and more government agencies are relying on partnerships with hospitals or donations from pharmaceuticals to make the units available at an affordable price.
“The prices we were getting came in at about $17.55 per unit, and that’s a two-piece unit with the Amphastar product. We saw that that lasted only a short amount of time and then the quotes we were getting for the replacement units were reaching prices over $50 a unit,” said Pine Hill Police Chief Chris Winters.
Two of the pharma companies we reached out to today tell us the list price is deceiving, saying many individual patients get a discount through insurance and most first responder departments are given donations.