In the latest attempt to combat prescription drug abuse, two US senators want several drug makers to explain their pricing for naloxone, a decades-old drug that is widely used to reverse the effect of opioid and heroin overdoses.
The move comes amid ongoing reports that the cost of the treatment continues to rise, despite bitter complaints from public officials. At the same time, public health officials cite a growing number of overdose deaths — more than 27,000 were recorded in the US in 2014.
In identical letters to five drug makers, Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri who chairs the Senate Special Committee on Aging, wrote that they are concerned that rising prices “may be limited access for emergency responders and public health departments.”
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