What are the facts about Narcan?

Naloxone, also known as Narcan, is a medication that reverses or reduces the effects of opioids.  

Naloxone was patented in 1961.

Narcan works within 2 minutes if given intravenously, and within 10 minutes if given as a nasal spray.  Narcan works for 30-90 minutes.  

The manufacturer of Narcan is Emergent Biosolutions, which charges $150 a dose for the medication.  Emergent Biosolutions is based in Maryland, and had revenue of $1.793 billion in 2021. In 2011 their revenue was $273 million.

In 2011, there were 21,089 fatal opioid overdoses.  In 2021, there were 64,000 fatal drug overdoses, and almost 2 million non-fatal opioid overdoses.

When given Narcan, 93.5% of people survive their overdose.  However within a year, 10% of those patients have died from a subsequent overdose.