COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio House has approved a bill expanding the availability of a drug overdose antidote being used across Ohio to save addicts on the brink of death.
It came on the same day that Ohio’s Attorney General reached an agreement with a manufacturer of the drug to offer rebates to agencies that buy it for the next year.
The legislation unanimously approved Wednesday is aimed at reducing the state’s record-high number of fatal overdoses from heroin and painkillers, now the leading cause of accidental death in Ohio, surpassing car crashes.
The bill allows individuals authorized by a physician to distribute naloxone to an addict or family member or friend in a position to intervene during an overdose.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Robert Sprague (R-Findlay) and Rep. Jeff Rezabek (R- Clayton) also allows pharmacies to distribute the drug without a prescription.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine also announced Wednesday that his office reached an agreement with naloxone manufacturer Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. regarding rebates for public entities that purchase the drug within the next year.
DeWine says heroin contributed to as many as 18 overdose deaths a week in 2013 and estimated that naloxone was administered to counter overdoses in Ohio 74,000 times between 2003 and 2012.
As part of the agreement, Amphastar has agreed to provide a $6 rebate for each Amphastar naloxone syringe purchased by non-federal public entities in Ohio between March 2 of this year and March 1, 2016.
The agreement is in response to a letter sent by Attorney General DeWine to Amphastar last month after the company dramatically increased its price