The Food and Drug Administration in the United States is heading to take an “imminent” decision regarding a drug that performs a “magic” effect in helping addicts, while its provision has been the preserve of doctors and nurses for decades.
According to the “Washington Post” newspaper, the US drug licensing authority may make its decision regarding facilitating access to the drug “Naloxone”, next March.
Currently, this drug is given to people who have taken an opioid overdose, through a needle or through an IV, by nurses or doctors.
And the newspaper reported that if the Food and Drug Administration allowed the purchase of the drug “Naloxone” in the form of a spray, this would help many addicts.
But the drug that performs the opposite effect against the opiate drug, in order to save the life of the abused person, will not be affordable, because a single dose of it will cost $ 75.
And if this spray is offered at a price of $ 75 per dose, many who need it will not be able to buy it at a critical time in their lives and their suffering with addiction.
And the “Washington Post” wrote that what is required is to make a cheaper version of the drug available, such as being offered in the form of a “liquid” that costs less than two dollars per dose.
The US Food and Drug Administration first approved this drug in 1971, as a liquid product given by injection, by emergency physicians, nurses and health workers.
Over the decades, anti-drug activists have volunteered to educate drug users and teach them ways to take medication if they suffer complications due to a drug overdose.
Despite the benefit of this drug in mitigating the consequences of abuse, US lawmakers opposed the sale of injectable products to people who abused.
Some lawmakers attributed their refusal to the lack of knowledge of many people about the methods of injecting the drug, and this prompted them to think about introducing a spray, so that resorting to it would be easy and free of any complications.