State Attorney General Jeff Landry announced today a unique lawsuit settlement that may save the lives of opioid overdose victims.
As The Advertiser reports, the agreement by Landry’s office and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer will provide Louisiana with the equivalent of $1 million worth of Naloxone doses, a drug that offsets the effects of opioids. Landry says the doses will be distributed to first responders in Louisiana through vouchers, which various public safety organizations may request.
The doses can in turn be administered to overdose victims when first responders are called to emergency scenes.
Landry says opioid overdoses represent “an epidemic that knows no boundaries,” and the point of the settlement, which comes from a pricing suit the Attorney General’s Office initiated in 2015, “is to save lives.”
There are more opioid overdose deaths in New Orleans than murders, and there are more opioid prescriptions written in Louisiana than there are people, Landry says.
“Those statistics stand out to you,” he said.
