US FDA approves first OTC opioid overdose reversal drug
STORY: The fight against opioid overdoses in the United States got a big regulatory boost.
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved over-the-counter sales of Emergent BioSolutions Narcan without a prescription. That will make the life-saving medication used to reverse opioid overdoses more widely available.
The company said the nasal spray would appear on U.S. shelves and at online retailers by late summer.
Narcan - or Naloxone - rapidly reverses or blocks the effects of opioids, restoring normal respiration, especially when given within minutes of the first signs of an overdose.
Drug-related overdose deaths in the United States rose about 15% year-over-year to more than 100,000 in 2021, according to official data.
While the approval puts Emergent ahead in the OTC product race, analysts say the company isn’t likely to see a significant sales boost from the change. One pointed out that sales for Narcan peaked in 2020 and have declined since.
Shares of Emergent were up 3-percent in morning trading though they have lost about 80-percent of their value over the past year.
