State Officials Settle With Drug Company For Cheaper Access To Overdose Antidote

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel has reached a deal with a pharmaceutical company to reduce the cost of the heroin overdose antidote Narcan.

Schimel said the rebate deal reached with Amphastar Pharmaceuticals will cut the cost of the life-saving drug by about 25 percent at a time when overdose deaths have increased dramatically. He said local ambulance services are finding it hard to buy enough of the drug to meet the demand.

“Ten years ago, I don’t think anybody would have imagined that ambulance crews would be administering so much of this that they have to start thinking about whether they can meet their budget at the end of the year,” Schimel said.

The deal provides a $6 rebate for each pre-filled syringe purchased for use by emergency medical technicians. The contract with the company includes a provision that would increase the rebate if the price of the drug goes up. Both New York and Ohio recently signed similar deals with Amphastar.

Schimel said EMTs used Narcan more than 5,000 times to save people from overdoses in 2012 and the number has been rising steadily.

“In addition to the 800 people who died from overdoses in the last measured year, there were thousands of administrations of Narcan,” said Schimel. “If we didn’t have this antidote to an overdose available, and affordable we would be in a situation that would be just shocking.”

Patrick Ryan, president of the Professional Ambulance Association of Wisconsin, said the deal will be especially helpful to EMT providers in smaller towns and cities where the overdose death rate is rising.

Schimel said the state is also working on a rebate deal to cut the cost of the nasal spray form of Narcan now carried by many police officers.