Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., urged President Trump to take action to lower the price of the overdose antidote naloxone, a key recommendation from the president’s own opioid panel.
Cummings’ letter on Wednesday comes a day after the U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams issued a public health advisory detailing the importance of access to naloxone and urging the public to stock up on the drug. A key hurdle has been price increases for the antidote, as some cities have had trouble paying for it.
Cummings called on Trump to take up a recommendation from the president’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis. The panel called for Trump to let the secretary of Health and Human Services negotiate directly with drug companies to lower the price of naloxone.
Cummings and more than 50 lawmakers wrote to Trump in September and urged the president to implement the recommendation.
““[Y]ou have taken no action to implement this recommendation over the past nine months,” Cummings said in the Wednesday letter. “Currently, first responders do not have the naloxone they need to address this crisis. They are being forced to ration this life-saving drug because drug companies have increased their prices.”
Cummings has led several probes into drug companies raising prices.
