In our first ten months of operation, Remedy Alliance/For the People has provided over 1 million doses of naloxone to harm reduction programs for free distribution to people who use drugs in 37 states and DC--130,000 doses at no-cost.
We are losing over 100,000 people to overdose yearly in the US, due to the unpredictable drug supply caused by prohibition1. Naloxone access for people who use drugs is one strategy to help combat the ever-increasing number of preventable deaths2. However, while harm reduction programs innovated naloxone distribution twenty-seven years ago, we still see uneven distribution of resources and supplies throughout the 50 states and territories of the US3.
We seek to remedy systemic misallocation of resources in the US and wasteful purchase of expensive naloxone at the state level that is not being prioritized for the most impactful programs. Naloxone for overdose prevention is purchased largely by state and local governments and disseminated to community-based organizations and first responders, or less frequently, purchased directly by programs using grant funds.
Since 2018, federal dollars have been routed through states to purchase naloxone for community distribution. But in many places, harm reduction programs are excluded from accessing this supply, or are allocated an inadequate volume to meet the true need in their communities. States are primarily purchasing exclusively expensive nasal naloxone ($75 per two-dose kit from 2015-2021, reduced to approximately $47.50 in 2022) which limits their purchasing power by volume, in some cases creating false scarcity and allocation schemes that are not meeting the true need4.
For over a decade, what is now Remedy Alliance/For the People (formerly known as the OSNN Buyers Club) has been providing access to large volume, low-cost generic injectable naloxone to programs who are either not receiving enough institutionally purchased naloxone for distribution, or programs who wish to maximize the impact of their funding by directly purchasing the lowest cost product for higher volume distribution.
Remedy Alliance serves 230 programs, ranging from institutional purchasers who are supplying their local harm reduction programs, to independent non-profit harm reduction programs who autonomously purchase for distribution, to entirely un-funded and unincorporated groups doing mutual aid distribution. Remedy Alliance created a tiered pricing structure that circulates resources from well-funded purchasers to unfunded programs. We provide naloxone at a lower-than-market rate to well-funded programs, at-cost to partially funded programs and free to unfunded programs. Our “free” naloxone supply is supported by purchases at the other two price tiers. In our first 10 months we have been able to provide 130,000 doses of naloxone for free to unfunded and under-resourced harm reduction programs in 32 states5.
“NEXT Distro provides naloxone by mail to anyone in the country who is at risk of witnessing an overdose but unable to access the lifesaving drug in-person due to cost or stigma. Through our partnership with Remedy Alliance, NEXT has been able to access a large volume of affordable naloxone and has distributed over 20,000 additional doses of naloxone into low-access communities in the US.”
–Jamie Favaro, Executive Director NEXT Distro (a partner of Remedy Alliance/For the People)
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2https://remedyallianceftp.org/pages/all-about-naloxone
3https://remedyallianceftp.org/pages/history
4 One million doses of generic injectable naloxone from Remedy Alliance had a $1.7 million dollar value. The equivalent volume of Emergent’s nasal naloxone at their lowest public interest price ($23.75 per dose) would have cost $26.3 million dollars.
5 Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin