Narcan, the nasal spray that reverses opioid overdoses, is hitting store shelves this month for the first time as an over-the-counter medication.

Manufacturer Emergent BioSolutions says it has shipped hundreds of thousands of the two-spray kits, at a suggested retail price of $44.99. Major retailers such as CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and Walmart have agreed to put the kits on shelves. Companies are also selling the sprays online.

Narcan is a nasal spray version of naloxone, the opioid antidote credited with saving countless lives during the nation’s overdose crisis. More than 110,000 people are believed to have died of drug poisonings last year, more than two-thirds of them from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. Prescription Narcan is widely used, carried by paramedics and police officers, distributed by groups that work on the streets to reduce the dangers of an increasingly toxic drug supply, and stocked in libraries, schools and even vending machines.

Full story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/09/05/narcan-over-the-counter-faq/