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Cancer Answers is hosted by Dr. Anees Chagpar, Associate Professor of Surgical Oncology and Director of The Breast Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and Dr. Francine Foss, Professor of Medical Oncology. The show features a guest cancer specialist who will share the most recent advances in cancer therapy and respond to listeners questions. Myths, facts and advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment are discussed, with a different focus eachweek. Nationally acclaimed specialists in various types of cancer research, diagnosis, and treatment discuss common misconceptions about the disease and respond to questions from the community.Listeners can submit questions to be answered on the program at canceranswers@yale.edu or by leaving a message at (888) 234-4YCC. As a resource, archived programs from 2006 through the present are available in both audio and written versions on the Yale Cancer Center website.

Attorney General Secures Price Break On Narcan

Atty. General Peter Kilmartin announced the rebate to reporters at The Providence Center.
Kristin Gourlay
/
RIPR
Atty. General Peter Kilmartin announced the rebate to reporters at The Providence Center.

The price of a medication that can reverse a drug overdose has doubled over the past year. Now Rhode Island  will be getting a small break in the price of Narcan (the brand name for naloxone).               

Atty. General Peter Kilmartin announced the rebate to reporters at The Providence Center.
Credit Kristin Gourlay / RIPR
/
RIPR
Atty. General Peter Kilmartin announced the rebate to reporters at The Providence Center.

 Narcan can quickly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose –whether from heroin or prescription painkillers. The nasal spray or injectable costs anywhere between $30 to $60 dollars. That’s twice what it was last year, at a time when opioid overdoses are claiming more lives than car accidents.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin says a new deal could help organizations that use or distribute the drug.

“I’ve reached an agreement with the Narcan manufacturer Amphasatar Pharmaceuticals," said Kilmartin, "in which the company will provide a four dollar rebate for each dose of Narcan purchased in Rhode Island.”

Massachusetts reached a deal with the manufacturer earlier this year and set up a state fund to buy the drug. Kilmartin says he’d like to do the same.

He says he has also joined his colleagues in seeking answers from the manufacturer.

“We’ve sent a letter to the company asking them to explain that. Attorney General Jeppson in Connecticut just joined that effort," Kilmartin said.

Several thousand doses of Narcan have been distributed or administered to reverse an overdose in the past year. Emergency departments hand out Narcan kits to patients who have been brought in because of a drug overdose. Emergency medical teams use Narcan at the scene of an overdose or in the ambulance before transporting a patient. And many nonprofit organizations, like the PONI program at the Miriam Hospital, distribute the kits for free. 

Anyone can buy Narcan at many pharmacies in Rhode Island without a prescription.

Copyright 2015 The Public's Radio

Kristin Espeland Gourlay joined Rhode Island Public Radio in July 2012. Before arriving in Providence, Gourlay covered the environment for WFPL Louisville, KY’s NPR station. And prior to that, she was a reporter and host for Wyoming Public Radio. Gourlay earned her MS from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and her BA in anthropology from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR.

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