Two panels that advise the Food and Drug Administration are recommending that naloxone nasal spray be approved for over-the-counter sale for emergency treatment of opioid overdoses. The Joint Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee and the Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee voted unanimously to approve the measure. The FDA will make a final decision on March 29 if naloxone will become a nonprescription drug.
"This access for everyone is so needed," says Dr. Holly Geyer, a Mayo Clinic addiction specialist. "We need to have these lifesaving drugs accessible to the people who need them the most. It's time to get this drug out of just the pharmacies and into vending machines or other convenient locations where people live."
Drug overdoses have been rising in the U.S. for the last two decades.
