California is joining with a New Jersey company to buy a generic opioid overdose reversal drug
SACRAMENTO, California — California is partnering with a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company to purchase a generic version of Narcan, the drug that can save a person’s life during an opioid overdose, under an agreement announced Monday by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Amneal Pharmaceuticals will sell naloxone to California for $24 per pack, which is about 40% cheaper than the market price. California will give the kits away for free to first responders, universities and community organizations through the state’s Naloxone Distribution Project.
The deal is important because it means California will be able to buy many more naloxone – 3.2 million packs in one year instead of 2 million – for the same total cost.
The deal means that naloxone will eventually be available under the CalRx label. Newsom first proposed CalRx in 2019 as an effort to force drug companies to lower their prices by offering much cheaper, competing versions of life-saving drugs. He signed a law in 2020 that gives authority to the state.
California governments and companies will be able to purchase naloxone outside the Naloxone Distribution Project, Newsom’s administration said, adding that the state is working on a plan to make it available for sale to individuals.
“California is disrupting the drug industry with CalRx – securing life-saving medicines at lower and transparent prices,” Newsom said in a statement from his office.
Naloxone has been available without a prescription in the U.S. since March 2023, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan, a nasal spray brand produced by Maryland-based pharmaceutical company Emergent BioSolutions.
Amneal Pharmaceuticals makes a generic equivalent of Narcan that was approved by the FDA last week.
The naloxone packs purchased by California will initially be available under the Amneal label. The naloxone will move to the CalRx label once it is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a process that Newsom’s administration said could take several months.
Deaths from opioid overdoses, caused by heroin, fentanyl and oxycodone, have increased dramatically in California and across the country. The annual number of opioid overdose deaths in California has more than doubled since 2019, reaching 7,385 deaths by the end of 2022.
California started giving away naloxone kits for free in 2018. State officials say the Naloxone Distribution Project has distributed 4.1 million kits, reversing a reported 260,000 opioid overdoses. The money comes from taxpayers and parts of a nationwide settlement agreement with several other pharmaceutical companies.
Last year, California lawmakers agreed to spend $30 million to work with a pharmaceutical company to make its own version of naloxone. But in the end, they didn’t have to spend that money on this deal because Amneal Pharmaceutical was already so far along in the FDA approval process that no upfront funding from the state was needed.
Instead, California will use some of the revenue it receives from a national opioid settlement to purchase the drugs.
Naloxone is just one drug the Newsom administration is focusing on.
Last year, California signed a 10-year agreement with the nonprofit Civica to produce CalRx brand insulin, which is used to treat diabetes. California has set aside $100 million for that project, with $50 million for drug development and the rest to invest in a manufacturing facility. Newsom said a 10-milliliter bottle of state-brand insulin would sell for $30.
Civica has met with the FDA and “has a clear path forward,” the Newsom administration said.