Simone Kelly, 24, was not working when the New York Knicks championship parade drew an estimated 2 million fans to Lower Manhattan on June 18. She was off-duty. But when a man appeared to be overdosing in the crowd, Kelly and another first responder stepped in and used Narcan to revive him, according to the New York Post, which was first on the scene.
The incident spread quickly online, drawing attention to how fast a response must be during an opioid emergency. Kelly said that anyone can learn how to step in during such a situation.
The rescue happened to coincide with a significant moment for naloxone access. On June 16, the FDA approved Rextovy, a second over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray, making it available for purchase without a prescription at pharmacies, stores, and online. Narcan had already received over-the-counter approval from the Food and Drug Administration in 2023.
According to Healthline, the FDA has stated that while overdose deaths have dropped since Narcan's approval, the problem, largely driven by synthetic opioids like fentanyl, continues.
Joseph Volpicelli, MD, PhD, Executive Director of the Institute of Addiction Medicine, Emeritus Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, and senior advisor at Oar Health, described what the new approval means in practical terms. "This is significant because it means anyone can walk into a pharmacy and get a medication that can save their own or someone else's life from an opioid overdose, no prescription needed," he said. He added that "In the U.S., where opioids are [a] leading cause of injury-related death for people under 45, this expansion removes major barriers to addiction medication access, which I hope will set the precedent for similar drugs like naltrexone."
Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids now account for the majority of overdose deaths in the United States. The drugs have become so potent that a single dose of naloxone may not be enough. Fentanyl is also frequently mixed into other drugs, often without the user's knowledge.
A recent study published in the journal Anesthesiology examined how well naloxone works against newer synthetic opioids. Maarten A. van Lemmen, PhD, of the Department of Anesthesiology and Anesthesia and Pain Research Unit, led the research. "Our study shows that the current doses of naloxone may not be sufficient to reverse overdoses caused by newer synthetic opioids," van Lemmen said, pointing to the need for faster intervention when someone overdoses.
The Knicks parade rescue and the FDA's back-to-back approvals have renewed attention on what it takes for ordinary people to respond in an opioid emergency. Narcan and now Rextovy require no prescription, no medical training, and no advance notice.
