Prosecutor: Naloxone Producers Engaging In Price Gouging

Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato is calling on the state to investigate the sharp increase in the price of naloxone kits, calling the rise price gouging.

“All we’re seeing here is pure greed,” Coronato told the Press of Atlantic City in an article published Monday. The article notes the price of the naloxone kits has doubled in recent months, as more communities and emergency responders begin to carry and use the kits to reverse the effects of opiate overdoses.

Coronato has been leading the effort to equip emergency responders with the kits in response to the heroin epidemic, which took more than 100 lives in Ocean County in 2013. Since April, more than 100 naloxone rescues have been performed, Coronato has said.

“How do you justify an increase like that?” he said to the Press of Atlantic City. “It’s outrageous, ridiculous. When you look at it, this is pure capitalism and taking advantage of a situation to make money where lives are being saved.”

While Coronato and others want to see the state investigate the increase -- Alan Olberman, CEO of the John Brooks Recovery Center in Atlantic City, said he has seen the price of naloxone kits double from $51 to $99 in just three months -- a state spokesman said Gov. Chris Christie’s office doesn’t expect the price increase to make the drug overdose kits less available.

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