Portman report: Naloxone maker gouges consumers

Drug company hiked price of life-saving drug 600 percent amid national opiate-overdose crisis, subcommittee says

Staff report

WASHINGTON, D.C.

A new report released by a U.S. senator from Ohio charges a drug company with gouging consumers with dramatic price increases in naloxone during a national opioid-overdose crisis.

The investigative report released by U.S. Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Tom Carper , D-Del., the chairman and ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, focused on the cost of naloxone, the prescription drug used to revive individuals who overdose on opioids.

It was the focus of a CBS News “60 Minutes” report Sunday night.

The new PSI report details how the drug manufacturer kal o exploited the opioid crisis by increasing the price of its naloxone drug, EVZIO, by more than 600 percent from the initial price of $575 per unit to $3,750 and then to $4,100 11 months later.

The price hike signaled the launching of a new distribution model planning to “capitalize on the opportunity” of “opioid overdose at epidemic levels.”

According to the PSI report, the company’s sales force focused on making sure doctors’ offices signed necessary paperwork indicating that EVZIO was medically necessary, thereby ensuring the drug would be covered by government programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

The plan worked, resulting in increased costs to taxpayers, to date, totaling more than $142 million in just the last four years, despite the fact that less costly versions of naloxone exist, the report says.

“Naloxone is a critically important overdose reversal drug that our first responders have used to save tens of thousands of lives,” said Sen. Portman.

“The fact that one company dramatically raised the price of its naloxone drug and cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in increased drug costs, all during a national opioid crisis no less, is simply outrageous,” he said.

The subcommittee will continue its efforts to protect taxpayers from drug manufacturers that are exploiting loopholes in the Medicare and Medicaid system in order to profit from a national opioid crisis,” Portman said.

“Our country is grappling with one of the most lethal public health crisis in our history. Too many families in my home state and across our country have lost loved ones to fatal overdoses that could have been prevented. The fact that, in the midst of this crisis, some would take advantage of loopholes in our system to profit off of this heartbreaking epidemic is absolutely unacceptable and shameful,” said Senator Carper.

“Senator Portman and I will continue working together to root out systemic problems contributing to this crisis and find solutions at the federal level.”

, and hold any bad actors accountable.”