Medication lamentations, in three parts:

Part three: lifesaving injections:

I’m thinking of two different injectable medications that can be lifesaving. Anyone can give them—they are packaged to be an easy auto inject in a crisis.

There is little to no downside to giving

them in most situations. They treat conditions that, while different in nature, have increased exponentially in the past decades, with no signs of abating soon. 911 should be called if either is given. One is now widely available for emergency use without a prescription. The other requires an individual prescription, leading to millions of expired and discarded doses annually. The profits made from the increased price of these, without a change in the drug or delivery system, has made headlines.

The first is naloxone (brand name Narcan). Used to treat opioid overdoses, it is now widely used by first responders and police. It saves lives without needing a prescription for each use. You can right now google where to find it, often for free, as a nasal spray or injectable. There’s a sign at my pharmacy encouraging me to pick up the nasal spray dose, “just in case.”

The second is epinephrine, packaged as EpiPens and generic versions. Each child with an allergy must have a prescription for one, with multiple autoinjectors on hand. One for home. One for carrying by a parent or teen when out and about. One for school, where it hopefully languishes in the nurse’s office for the year, along with a dose of Benadryl and the action plan from the allergist or pediatrician.

We have a child with a nut allergy. Every year, we brought the EpiPen and associated supplies to the nurse’s office and picked up the unused ones. I was always astounded by the number of EpiPens that were purchased and expired in the office, discarded at the end of the school year. They aren’t cheap. Our kid never needed it at school. If she did, the nurse’s office was not near the cafeteria where her exposure would have most likely occurred.

In middle school and high school, she preferred to carry her own, and an action plan isn’t required for teens. Should she forget, or leave it in her car, there isn’t a dose nearby if she’s exposed in school.

Why can’t we have a break the glass in case of emergency in school cafeterias, with a pediatric and adult dose injectable for use right where it’s needed? Breaking the glass would trigger a 911 call, just like a fire alarm or if you access an AED (automatic external defibrillator) in a public place. This could save lives and money. We would have gladly given the $40 for an EpiPen that we hoped never to be used to supply one for the school if we could. Put another in the nurse’s office—hell, put 2 in there. Cover the kids with allergies to bee stings, and the ones whose families can’t afford the copay for a medication that they hope never to use. Have a backup. Feel free to keep a list of action plans in the nurse’s office.

Can my friends who are engineers, patent lawyers--you know who you are, clever and creative people--collaborate and make this a reality? Please?