Two U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory boards, both of which are composed of physicians, addiction medicine specialists and first responders, unanimously voted to recommend that the FDA make Narcan available over the counter without a prescription. As Jan Hoffman reported for The New York Times:
“In recommending that the spray become as easily available as ibuprofen, the 19 voting panelists determined that naloxone, which was approved as an overdose-reversal injection in 1971, is abundantly safe and effective even in infants, with almost no potential for misuse or abuse. And, the panels concluded, naloxone does not require medical training to use… The unanimous vote by the committees … makes it highly likely that the F.D.A. will approve an over-the-counter version of the drug [paving the way for the life-saving drug to be widely] available in vending machines, schools, convenience shops, big box stores and supermarkets by summer…Many public health experts believe that if more people were to have the spray readily available at home, or in their pockets or knapsacks, many fatalities could be averted.”