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Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine
DeWine
Announces Agreement with Naloxone Manufacturer
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) -- Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced today
that Ohio has reached an agreement with naloxone manufacturer Amphastar
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. regarding rebates for public entities that
purchase Amphastar naloxone within the next year.
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, 2015, and March 1, 2016.
"It is my goal each and every day to protect Ohioans, and this
agreement will not only save money, but it will also save lives," said
Ohio Attorney General DeWine. "Because we were able to secure
these rebates, law enforcement and other agencies can use the money
they save to buy more doses of naloxone. The more doses that are
available, the more lives that can be saved."
The agreement is in response to a letter sent by Attorney General
DeWine to Amphastar last month after the company dramatically increased
its price for the life-saving drug. When given to a person
overdosing on heroin or a prescription opioid, naloxone can limit or
stop the overdose by reversing the effects of the opioid on the brain.
Public entities that qualify for the rebates include, but are not
limited to, law enforcement agencies, the Ohio Department of Mental
Health and Addiction Services, Project DAWN (Deaths Avoided with
Naloxone) community programs, and county and local governments.
If Amphastar raises its wholesale price of naloxone during the term of
the agreement, the company has also agreed to increase the rebate
amount.
Ohio, like many other states, has been severely plagued by the opiate
epidemic, with heroin contributing to as many as 18 overdose deaths a
week in 2013. Naloxone was administered to counter opioid
overdoses an estimated 74,000 times in Ohio between 2003 and 2012, with
more than 10,500 of those doses administered in 2012 alone.
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