Broome County Naloxone Prices Double

The cost of saving lives with a heroin overdose antidote is soaring as more police, fire and EMS personnel are being issued the medication.

Broome County sheriff David Harder says the price of naloxone has doubled since he announced all department vehicles would carry it.

Harder says at least eight lives have been saved by sheriff's office personnel over the last nine months.

Naloxone is part of a kit that's now standard equipment in the agency's sixty vehicles.

The sheriff had planned to use $3,000 in narcotics seizure funds to pay for the naloxone. But he says the county has been reimbursed by the state for what it spent on the medication.

The New York Times this week reported on the significant price increases police agencies and other organizations have been paying for naloxone.

According to the newspaper, the president of Amphastar, which provides the naloxone used by the Broome sheriff's office, declined to address pricing questions. But he did indicate "manufacturing costs have increased on an annual basis."

New York state attorney general Eric Schneiderman says he's written to naloxone manufacturers seeking an explanation for the price hikes.