Huge Need Skyrockets Cost of Naloxone Device

(Summer 2017) Due to the high demand for the opioid-reversal drug naloxone, the cost of Evzio, a tool that administers the antidote, has escalated from $690 in 2014 for a twin-pack up to its current price of $4,500. Evzio walks rescuers through the steps of using it as they inject naloxone. Given a nod by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2014, Evzio was responsible for approximately one-fifth of all naloxone sold through retail stores between 2015 and 2016.

Evzio is produced by a company named Kaleo. To date, the manufacturer has issued over 180,000 of the devices to rescue workers, drug treatment initiatives and cities free of charge. In 2016, Kaleo’s stock of in-kind donations was depleted by July. Though it has allocated a larger number of free injectors this year, its pro-bono stores could be exhausted even more quickly if the rising trajectory of overdoses persists.

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