Cardinal Health launched its Opioid Action Program Thursday to help communities in the four states hit hardest by the opioid epidemic — Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Through the initiative, Cardinal Health will offer frontline tools to prevent opioid abuse and help first responders.
Here are the four major steps Cardinal Health will take through the program.
- Purchase 80,000 doses of the opioid antidote drug naloxone to distribute to first responders and law enforcement officials free of charge.
- Boost existing efforts to support drug "take back" and education programs.
- Invest $3 million to expand grants that support youth prevention education, prescriber opioid awareness and reduction efforts, and community responses to the epidemic.
- Collaborate with Brown University's Warren Lapert Medical School in Providence, R.I., to share resources about opioid misuse and treatment to medical schools nationwide.
Cardinal Health will monitor the success of the current program before looking for opportunities to expand the initiative to additional states.
To learn more about the program, click here.
More articles on opioids:
Former Insys CEO to plead not guilty in opioid scheme indictment
Indianapolis files opioid epidemic lawsuit against drugmakers, drug distributors
40+ state AGs call for repeal of law stifling DEA's oversight of opioid distributors