The AP (8/6, Stobbe) reports, “Prescriptions of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone are soaring, and experts say that could be a reason overdose deaths have stopped rising for the first time in nearly three decades.” CDC officials reported Tuesday that “the number of naloxone prescriptions dispensed by U.S. retail pharmacies doubled from 2017 to last year, rising from 271,000 to 557,000.” Meanwhile, “about 68,000 people died of overdoses last year, according to preliminary government statistics reported last month, a drop from the more than 70,000 in 2017.” CDC researchers also “noted there were fewer than 1,300 naloxone prescriptions dispensed in 2012, meaning the number grew more than 430-fold in six years.” Health officials “said pharmacies should be giving out even more.” The findings were published online in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
STAT (8/6, Joseph) reports that “while the number of naloxone prescriptions doubled from 2017 to 2018, there was still only one dispensed for every 69 high-dose opioid prescriptions.” Dr. Anne Schuchat, the Principal Deputy Director of the CDC, said: “We may never get to 1-to-1…but we think that ratio of 1-to-70 is too low.” Meanwhile, the CDC report “also uncovered drastic geographic disparities, with some counties dispensing the medication at 25 times the rate of other counties.” Specifically, “dispensing rates were often lowest in rural counties, a finding that Schuchat called ‘disappointing.’”
Related Links:
— “Boom in overdose-reversing drug is tied to fewer drug deaths, “Mike Stobbe, AP, August 06, 2019