During the same week that naloxone — a nasal spray that reverses opioid overdoses — became available for purchase without a prescription, the nation’s top substance use officials called for greater availability and training for the drug, with five federal officials receiving training to administer it during a public demonstration at Health and Human Services headquarters Friday.
The five were HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra; Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm; Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, HHS assistant secretary for mental health and substance use; and Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for health. They received their training — which may have been at least partly ceremonial, given the medical background of some in attendance — ahead of the Sept. 30 expiration of several critical public health programs, including a sweeping 2018 opioid prevention law. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than 110,000 individuals died from drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending March 2023, according to preliminary data.
While the Food and Drug Administration initially approved naloxone in 1971 as an injectable drug used in medical settings, it wasn’t until 2015 that the FDA approved a nasal spray version for prescription use. But the agency only approved the first over-the-counter versions of the drug this year. It became available without prescription this week, with Emergent BioSolutions’ 4 mg nasal spray selling for $44.99 for a two-dose product. Harm Reduction Therapeutics’s RiVive, is expected to become available in early 2024.
