FDA Advisors Recommend Opioid Treatment Narcan for Over-the-Counter Use

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in White Oak, Md., on July 20, 2020. Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images

An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended that the opioid reversal nasal spray Narcan should become an over-the-counter drug.

Narcan, or naxolone, is the most commonly sold medication to deal with opioid overdoses. Emergent BioSolutions Inc. submitted an application to the FDA late last year to allow it to sell generic naloxone hydrochloride without a prescription.