In this year’s General Assembly, our team here at BCHD is focusing our attention and advocacy efforts on policies and proposals that will improve the health of residents and reduce disparities in Baltimore and across the state.  

As the grim toll of opioid overdose deaths has risen steadily in Maryland and across the country, public health officials increasingly have urged that the anti-overdose medication Narcan, also known as naloxone, be made more widely available to addicts and their caregivers. 　The antidote, taken in the form of either a nasal spray or an injection, can quickly revive overdose victims after they've stopped breathing, and Baltimore officials credit it with preventing more than 800 people in the city alone from succumbing to fatal overdoses in recent years.

But with the drug's life-saving successes has also come a cruel dilemma in the form of rapidly spiraling price hikes　for even the generic version of the drug. The price of a common injectible version is up 500 percent in the last two years, and the price of the nasal spray Baltimore's health department uses is up more than 60 percent. That has health officials worried that rising costs will deny the the opportunity to exploit the drug's full life-saving potential by training as many people as possible in its use and distributing it not only to first responders and health professionals but also　to ordinary citizens — friends and family of drug users — who might be in a position to rescue an overdose victim.

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The price of a drug that has saved the lives of more than 800 people overdosing on heroin or other opioids in Baltimore is rising rapidly.

The antidote known as naloxone revives addicts after they've stopped breathing, with either a simple spray in their nose or an injection.

The use of naloxone is a centerpiece of Baltimore public health officials' wide-ranging efforts to battle the growing heroin epidemic, but the rising price of the antidote could constrain the campaign to stop or at least slow the rate of overdose deaths.

"We shouldn't be priced out of saving lives," said Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore's health commissioner. "In a time of a public health emergency, we should be making it more affordable and available."

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