B.C. is investing $18 million to buy tens of thousands of take-home nasal spray naloxone kits for distribution at 2,400 locations starting in April.
Tracy Thompson, the South Island harm reduction coordinator for Island Health, said that more and more people are requesting the nasal version of the anti-opioid overdose drug as opposed to the more common injectable version.
“These requests are not just about convenience,” Thompson said at a Thursday (Feb. 19) press conference in Victoria. “They are coming from people who want to help, but are feeling nervous about responding for the first time.”
The province first introduced the nasal spray kind of naloxone in 2024, buying 60,000 kits. This expansion means about half the 400,000 naloxone kits provided by the province for free each year will be the nasal spray type.
Health Canada has approved two companies’ versions of nasal naloxone, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Emergent BioSolutions. Both of these companies are based in the United States.
The products generally sell commercially for more than $50 per two-pack.
But a representative of the Vancouver-based Fair Price Pharma says his company can produce the nasal spray for less than half that cost — if it could just get the several million dollars of seed money needed to conduct the required clinical trials.
“What they’re charging for the U.S. product, that price doesn’t reflect the cost,” said Dr. Martin Schechter, who is part of Fair Price Pharma’s leadership team and who was the founding director of the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health. “We can produce a nasal naloxone for $10 a dose.”
Schechter says that Fair Price has designed the product and has the manufacturing capability lined up, it just needs the money to pay for clinical trials to prove its version of the spray does what it is supposed to. The company has tried to obtain federal funding, to no avail.
“If we were provided with those funds, we could develop the product, get it licensed, and it’d be available to the government and the public health system,” Schechter said.
Schechter says that Fair Price, based on East Hastings Street in Vancouver, is also trying to get the approval to produce diacetylmorphine, an opioid-based treatment and alternative to methadone and Suboxone. This treatment is used in some parts of Europe for patients who do not respond to less potent treatments.
The B.C. Green Caucus applauded the government’s decision to buy new nasal naloxone kits, but West Vancouver-Sea to Sky MLA Jeremy Valeriote also called for more investment in domestic production capabilities.
“If this government truly wants to save lives, it must support domestic pharmaceutical production and expand regulated alternatives to replace the toxic illicit drugs that are killing British Columbians every day,” Valeriote said in a written statement.
Health Minister Josie Osborne said that prioritizing Canadian companies over American ones is a “key priority” for the provincial government, though she would not disclose details from the procurement process. She said that prices and information about negotiations with companies on procurement decisions are confidential.
The ministry provided a statement saying that vendor choice is based on criteria that include product expiry, cost, and ability to deliver on time. More information about the successful vendor bid will be released in the coming weeks.