Q & A: Rep for overdose reversal drug on saving lives during an epidemic

Narcan now required with most Rx opioids

New Mexico this month became one of nine states to pass legislation requiring an opioid prescription lasting five days or longer to come along with a prescription for another drug that might save the user’s life: Narcan, a nasal spray whose active ingredient, Nalaxone, blocks the effects of an opioid and can bring a drug user back from a potentially fatal overdose.

Thom Duddy, vice president of communications for Emergent BioSolutions (the company that makes Narcan) visited New Mexico this month to speak about the progress of the drug, which has helped bring the national overdose death rate down from the peak levels of the opioid epidemic a few years ago.

On Tuesday, (June 26) Duddy interviewed with The Taos News, explaining why Narcan isn’t going anywhere anytime soon as is a critical tool in fighting the ongoing drug epidemic that has swept the nation.

Narcan has been extremely effective in driving opioid overdose death rates down, but what role does it play in the long-term treatment for an opioid addict?

Opioid use disorder is a very complex disorder. It takes some people many attempts at longterm recovery, but I think the role Narcan plays is that you can’t have someone recover if they’re not alive.

Narcan is all over the country – in police stations, hospitals, jails and prisons. Where is it being used most effectively?

It’s probably having the greatest impact with law enforcement having access to it because they’re usually on the scene first.

How has your organization ensured that people who have access to Narcan know how to use it properly?

Our device was designed in collaboration with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and it was designed for people like you and me – nonmedically trained people. It actually doesn’t require any training. It doesn’t require any assembly. It’s a self-contained device. What we do with law enforcement is we develop what’s called a role call video, where within eight minutes, they can watch this video, understand the signs and symptoms of how to recognize an overdose and how to use Narcan nasal spray. They do it at role call meetings in the early mornings or during evening shift changes.

Our newsroom listens to a police scanner all the time, so we often hear calls for overdoses where Narcan is now being administered. It seems to be effective, but does it ever fail to bring someone back from an overdose?

Naloxone is extremely effective and it’s been well established. It’s an old drug and it’s the active ingredient in Narcan nasal spray. It’s been available since 1971. The key to the successful reversal is dose and timing – making sure you have the appropriate dose and the timing of delivering that dose. If you can catch somebody before four or five minutes of an overdose and you can get them administered Nalaxone (or Narcan), you have a pretty good chance of success.

Is Narcan effective at reversing overdoses caused by other drugs?

No, they are only an opioid antagonist, so they will not work on Benzodiazepine, for example, or methamphetamine.

Read the entire interview online at taosnews.com.