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By: The opinion Posted 24 May 2023, 22:10 pm EDT
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Opvee, a new nalmefene hydrochloride nasal sprayas part of its efforts to combat the country’s opioid crisis, which can be administered to patients 12 years and older.
It would be an alternative medication to naloxone, whose objective is to establish normal breathing in a person who is breathing slowly or has stopped breathing due to an opioid overdose.
According to the FDA, andnalmefene is an opioid receptor antagonist, “If administered quickly, it can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, including respiratory depression, sedation, and low blood pressure.”
The drug approved for the pharmaceutical company Opiant is commercially called Opveeand delivers 2.7 milligrams of nalmefene into the nasal cavity.
It is worth mentioning that it would be a nasal spray update of the drug nalmefene, which was first approved as an injection in the mid-1990sbut was later withdrawn from the market due to poor sales.
As the opioid epidemic has shifted to fentanyl and other synthetics, US government and pharmaceutical industry researchers are working to counter the country’s crisis, which has already caused more than 103,000 deaths in the United States. 12-month period ending in November 2022.
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