US health advisors are preparing to consider whether Emergent BioSolutions Inc.’s opioid overdose reversal drug is safe to sell without a prescription, a move hoped to raise access amid a surging death toll for the decades-long public-health crisis.
Emergent will present findings to a joint meeting of two US Food and Drug Administration advisory panels Wednesday aimed at showing its nasal spray, sold under the brand name Narcan , can be used without oversight from a medical professional. Advice from the outside groups — the Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee and the Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee — isn’t binding, but the FDA frequently adopts their recommendations and has said it intends to return a decision by March 29.
