Recognizing ongoing access issues, a Philadelphia City Council committee on Tuesday recommended a bill that would require pharmacies to have at least one naloxone pack (with two doses) in stock. Council is expected to vote on the measure next week.
“We did a survey and found 25 percent of pharmacies don’t have it,” city Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said. “We want 100 percent to have it on hand.”
By Marie McCullough
To make the drug even more easily available, a City Council committee approved a bill mandating that all pharmacies in Philadelphia stock it. Recent studies show that fewer than half of city pharmacies do carry it.
The legislation is part of the city’s promotion and distribution of naloxone. Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said that, since June of 2017, his department has given out more than 57,000 doses of Narcan to people in a position to administer it.
By Nina Feldman
The Collected Works of Jim Garrow 