News Narcan inventor developing new overdose treatment to combat fentanyl scourge

[thegreenhand]

Narcan inventor developing new overdose treatment to combat fentanyl scourge​

Luke Tress
The Times of Israel
30 Aug 2022

Excerpts:

The inventor of the Narcan opioid overdose treatment is developing a new drug antidote to combat fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is driving record US overdose deaths.

Fentanyl is far more powerful than the prescription pills and heroin that set off the overdose crisis. Narcan was developed to reverse the effects of those drugs, but is less effective against fentanyl, which is causing the majority of deaths.

Crystal and Opiant began developing a new drug, called OPNT003, which replaces Naloxone with a more powerful opioid antagonist called Nalmefene. It will also be delivered as a nasal spray.

The FDA approved Nalmefene as an injection called Revex in 1995, but it was discontinued because there was no need for such a powerful treatment.

“We think it has properties that make it potentially better suited for overdoses from synthetic opioids, including illicit fentanyl,” Crystal said of Nalmefene.

 

[thegreenhand]

The mean terminal elimination half-life of nalmefene is 8.5 hours, compared with 1 hour for naloxone.

-nalmefene overview

talk about precipitated withdrawal heh ?