This Nasal Spray Rapidly Reverses Effects Of Fentanyl Overdose And No, It’s Not Naloxone
Indivior PLC (NASDAQ:INDV) announced the results from a pharmacodynamic study on Monday demonstrating that OPVEE rapidly reverses opioid-induced respiratory depression, the major cause of death due to opioid overdose.
The Study
Titled “Reversal of opioid-induced respiratory depression in healthy volunteers: comparison of intranasal nalmefene and intranasal naloxone”, the study was published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. It was part of the OPVEE development program and reviewed by the FDA as part of the approval process.
The research focused on a head-to-head comparison examining the effects of 2.7 mg intranasal (IN) nalmefene (OPVEE) and 4 mg IN naloxone on opioid-induced respiratory depression.
The findings showed that OPVEE reversed the respiratory depression produced by remifentanil – which is a synthetic opioid related to fentanyl – during the first 5 minutes following the administration.
The subjects’ minute ventilation – the volume of air inhaled or exhaled from a person’s lungs per minute – reached roughly 95% of the pre-opioid baseline within 5 minutes following the administration of …