A person drives past a Walgreens truck owned by the Walgreens Boots Alliance on November 26, 2021 in Manhattan, New York City.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
Walgreens announced Wednesday that it will offer its own cheaper version of the over-the-counter opioid overdose spray naloxone. The drug is available online and will be available in all stores by the end of the month.
The drugstore retailer wants to increase availability of the life-saving drug in the U.S. as the country grapples with the fallout from the opioid epidemic and seeks to reduce alarmingly high drug death rates.
According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 1999 and 2021, more than 645,000 people died from overdoses of any type of opioid, including prescription and illicit opioids.
When administered timely, naloxone can temporarily reverse the effects of an overdose of opioids, including heroin and fentanyl. The drug blocks the effects of opioids on the brain, restoring normal breathing and preventing death.
Despite naloxone's effectiveness, access to the treatment “remains limited in many communities,” a Walgreens press release said.
The company said it will sell a two-dose package of “Walgreens Brand Naloxone” for $34.99. That's about $10 cheaper than the brand-name over-the-counter drug Narcan, which last year became the first over-the-counter version of naloxone to receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Previously, patients needed a prescription to access naloxone.
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“This was a concerted decision to really do everything we could to improve accessibility, not just in terms of quantity and availability, but also in terms of price,” Dr. Priya Mammen, senior medical director in Walgreens' Office of Clinical Integrity, told CNBC in an interview.
The company announced that the launch of its over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray comes following the product's recent FDA approval. It is the generic equivalent of the over-the-counter Narcan that Walgreens currently offers in its stores.
Mammen hopes Walgreens can help reduce the stigma associated with drug overdoses and naloxone use.
The drug “isn’t just for some people. “It is a life-saving medicine that can intervene in anyone at any age and at any time, and it is something that families, individuals and communities can strengthen by making available and can be part of the solution,” she said.
