Health News
- Ky. Pharmacists Can Now Fill Orders For A Lifesaving Anti-overdose Drug Without A Doctor's Order, But At Greater Expense
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Pharmacists across Kentucky can now fill orders for naloxone, including the nasal-spray Kentucky-developed version, used to treat opioid and heroin overdoses, without a prescription. Training to help them do that...
- Drug Overdose Deaths Rose 7.6 Percent In Kentucky Last Year
Kentucky had a 7.6 percent increase in overdose deaths in 2014, while the number of deaths attributed to heroin stayed the same, according to the state's 2014 Overdose Fatality Report. The report, issued by the Office of Drug Control Policy, said...
- Free Overdose-reversal Kits Are Given To Kentucky Hospitals With The Highest Recent Rates Of Heroin-overdose Deaths
Kentucky hospitals with the highest rates of heroin overdose deaths are receiving funding for heroin/opiate overdose reversal kits, which will be provided free of charge to every treated and discharged overdose victim at the pilot project hospitals, according...
- As Prescription Painkillers Become Harder To Get And Abuse, Heroin Replaces Them In Eastern And Southern Kentucky
Heroin use, which has been a problem in Northern and then Central Kentucky after the state began cracking down on prescription painkillers last year, has been spreading to the Southern and Eastern parts of the state. Heroin is becoming more popular throughout...
- Northern Kentucky Group Forms In Response To What Some Consider 'epidemic' Of Heroin Use In Their Area
Ashel Kruetzkamp with a vial of Naloxone HCl, used to treat those who overdose on heroin. (Photo by Patrick Reddy)Heroin use is reaching such high levels in Northern Kentucky that experts are calling it "a plague." The problem is so dire that local agencies...
Health News
Biotech firm buys UK professor's anti-overdose nasal spray
Pharmacy Professor Daniel Wermeling at the University of Kentucky invented a nasal spray to fight heroin overdoses, and a biotech firm has bought the product, which may be on the market within six months, pending approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The device "contains a single dose of a mist form of naloxone and delivers the drug in a way similar to how Flonase is used to treat allergies," Mary Meehan reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader.
The product is on a fast track for approval because of the rising rates of heroin overdoses across the country, said UK Provost Tim Tracy, former dean of UK's pharmacy school. Wermeling doesn't know exactly when his product will be on the market, but he said the FDA approved another fast-track, anti-overdose therapy after only 14 weeks. The fast-track program speeds development of drugs to treat serious or life-threatening conditions. "Last year, 233 people [in Kentucky] died with heroin in their systems, according to the state medical examiner's office," Meehan notes.
Wermeling has been developing the project at UK since 2009 with the help of more than $5 million in federal and state tax dollars. Tracy said Indivior PLC, the spinoff pharmaceutical company that bought the nasal spray, will be able to manufacture, market and distribute the product. Right now, emergency responders and hospitals must draw naloxone, branded as Narcan, in a syringe to provide the correct dose.
The product is on a fast track for approval because of the rising rates of heroin overdoses across the country, said UK Provost Tim Tracy, former dean of UK's pharmacy school. Wermeling doesn't know exactly when his product will be on the market, but he said the FDA approved another fast-track, anti-overdose therapy after only 14 weeks. The fast-track program speeds development of drugs to treat serious or life-threatening conditions. "Last year, 233 people [in Kentucky] died with heroin in their systems, according to the state medical examiner's office," Meehan notes.
Wermeling has been developing the project at UK since 2009 with the help of more than $5 million in federal and state tax dollars. Tracy said Indivior PLC, the spinoff pharmaceutical company that bought the nasal spray, will be able to manufacture, market and distribute the product. Right now, emergency responders and hospitals must draw naloxone, branded as Narcan, in a syringe to provide the correct dose.
- Ky. Pharmacists Can Now Fill Orders For A Lifesaving Anti-overdose Drug Without A Doctor's Order, But At Greater Expense
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Pharmacists across Kentucky can now fill orders for naloxone, including the nasal-spray Kentucky-developed version, used to treat opioid and heroin overdoses, without a prescription. Training to help them do that...
- Drug Overdose Deaths Rose 7.6 Percent In Kentucky Last Year
Kentucky had a 7.6 percent increase in overdose deaths in 2014, while the number of deaths attributed to heroin stayed the same, according to the state's 2014 Overdose Fatality Report. The report, issued by the Office of Drug Control Policy, said...
- Free Overdose-reversal Kits Are Given To Kentucky Hospitals With The Highest Recent Rates Of Heroin-overdose Deaths
Kentucky hospitals with the highest rates of heroin overdose deaths are receiving funding for heroin/opiate overdose reversal kits, which will be provided free of charge to every treated and discharged overdose victim at the pilot project hospitals, according...
- As Prescription Painkillers Become Harder To Get And Abuse, Heroin Replaces Them In Eastern And Southern Kentucky
Heroin use, which has been a problem in Northern and then Central Kentucky after the state began cracking down on prescription painkillers last year, has been spreading to the Southern and Eastern parts of the state. Heroin is becoming more popular throughout...
- Northern Kentucky Group Forms In Response To What Some Consider 'epidemic' Of Heroin Use In Their Area
Ashel Kruetzkamp with a vial of Naloxone HCl, used to treat those who overdose on heroin. (Photo by Patrick Reddy)Heroin use is reaching such high levels in Northern Kentucky that experts are calling it "a plague." The problem is so dire that local agencies...