FDA Approves Easy-To-Use Heroin Antidote To Combat Overdoses
Narcan is a reformulated drug delivered through a nasal spray that can reverse heroin and opioid overdoses. As the national drug abuse epidemic grows, local officials across the country have begun handing out the drug to police, drug users and families of addicts.
The Associated Press:
Heroin Antidote Gets OK
The Food and Drug Administration has approved an easy-to-use version of the life-saving drug that reverses heroin and prescription painkiller overdoses, as communities across the country grapple with a wave of drug abuse. The reformulated drug, sold as Narcan, comes as a nasal spray and should help first responders, police and others deliver the antidote in emergency situations. Known generically as naloxone, the drug reverses the effects of opioids — drugs that include legal painkillers such as oxycodone and illegal narcotics such as heroin. (11/18)
STAT:
FDA Approves Nasal Spray That Reverses Opioid Overdose
A critical drug used to reverse opioid overdoses will now be sold as a nasal spray, a development that will likely broaden use of the antidote among family members and friends of addicts caught up in a growing national epidemic of drug abuse. (Armstrong, 11/18)