Walgreens offers its own cheaper version of the opioid overdose drug naloxone

Walgreens announced Wednesday that it is going to offer its own cheaper version of it over-the-counter Opioid overdose reversal spray naloxone. The drug is accessible online and will probably be available in all stores by the top of the month.

The drugstore retailer wants to extend availability of the life-saving drug within the U.S. because the country grapples with the fallout from the opioid epidemic and seeks to cut back alarmingly high drug death rates.

According to probably the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 1999 and 2021, greater than 645,000 people died from overdoses of any sort of opioid, including prescription and illicit opioids.

When administered timely, naloxone can temporarily reverse the results of an overdose of opioids, including heroin and fentanyl. The drug blocks the results of opioids on the brain, restoring normal respiration and stopping death.

Despite naloxone's effectiveness, access to the treatment “remains limited in many communities,” a Walgreens press release said.

The company said it is going to sell a two-dose package of “Walgreens Brand Naloxone” for $34.99. This is about $10 cheaper than that non-prescription brand drug Narcan, which received Food and Drug Administration approval last 12 months as the primary non-prescription version of naloxone. Previously, patients needed a prescription to access naloxone.

“This was a concerted decision to really do everything we could to improve accessibility, not just in terms of quantity and availability, but also in terms of price,” Dr. Priya Mammen, senior medical director in Walgreens' Office of Clinical Integrity, told CNBC in an interview.

The company said the launch of its over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray is post-FDA approval current approval of the product. It is the generic Equivalent to over-the-counter Narcan that Walgreens currently offers in its stores.

Mammen hopes Walgreens may help reduce the stigma related to drug overdoses and naloxone use.

The drug “isn’t just for some people. “It is a life-saving medicine that can intervene in anyone at any age and at any time, and it is something that families, individuals and communities can strengthen by making available and can be part of the solution,” she said.