The Next Great Overdose-Reversing Drug Might Already Exist
THE OVERDOSE CRISIS is getting worse. Biblical-plague worse. The United States recorded more than 107,000 drug-induced deaths in 2021, up 28 percent from the previous year. Fentanyl has played a key role in this spike, with 64 percent of those deaths involving the synthetic opioid and its analogs. On the ground, harm-reduction groups are working to save lives with medications like naloxone, yet their efforts can only do so much. But they could soon have more tools to save lives: Scientists have discovered several fentanyl-related substances with potential to reverse overdoses. And this month, the US Congress has an opportunity to make studying these drugs and others like them easier…
“Anything we can do that would increase the variability of products on the market could potentially help overcome supply chain issues and hopefully drive down prices,” says Stacy McKenna, a harm reduction fellow at the libertarian-leaning think tank the R Street Institute. “And there might be something that works better to help reverse fentanyl overdoses…”
