SANFORD, NC – February 7, 2022 – DisposeRx, Inc. supports the comprehensive set of recommendations outlined in The Stanford-Lancet Commission’s Report on the North American opioid crisis and offers additional ideas for consideration on the topic of medication disposal.
The Stanford-Lancet Commission was formed to address the opioid-related morbidity and mortality faced by the United States and Canada over the past 25 years, which has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report, “Responding to the opioid crisis in North America and beyond: recommendations of the Stanford–Lancet Commission,” was published in The Lancet on February 2, 2022.
DisposeRx—manufacturer of the market leading at-home medication disposal solution, applauds many of the authors’ recommendations, including Domain 5–fostering healthier environments through programs for the safe disposal of opioid pills, substance use prevention, etc. The Stanford-Lancet Commission notes that when it comes to accessibility of drugs for children in the home, “more than a sixth of Canadian adults and a third of American adults receive an opioid prescription each year. A simple way to create healthier environments that reduce the likelihood of opioid-related problems in young people and adults is to get rid of the billions of excess opioid pills in homes.”
DisposeRx encourages The Stanford-Lancet Commission to expand beyond the initial recommendations to also include broad availability of at-home medication disposal technologies and education around the importance of safe disposal. Further, DisposeRx suggests requiring reimbursement by pharmaceutical manufacturers to pharmacies and pharmacists for providing opioid misuse prevention education and at-home medication disposal tools to patients receiving opioid prescriptions. Research shows that when patients are provided with education and a disposal tool that they are more likely to dispose of medications—immediately and in the convenience of their own home.
Efforts to educate patients about the risks of opioid prescriptions and the need for prompt medication disposal are underway with DisposeRx’s customers, which include more than 35,000 large and regional chain pharmacies, as well as health systems, health plans, providers and others. These organizations have invested millions of dollars through their opioid stewardship programs to educate and train their staffs, as well as their patients, and by dispensing DisposeRx medication disposal packets to their patients–in most cases free of charge.
“We commend the efforts of The Stanford-Lancet Commission to outline the root causes of the opioid public health crisis and more importantly to offer solutions,” said William Simpson, DisposeRx president and chief executive officer. “We believe that everyone has a role to play, and we look forward to renewed efforts to remove the risk from the home—without delay.”
About DisposeRx Packets
DisposeRx at-home medication disposal packets are comprised of materials that are FDA-approved for oral medications and provide a simple, convenient and effective solution for the disposal of unused or expired medications. The active ingredient in the medication is chemically and physically sequestered in a polymer gel when water and the DisposeRx powder are added to a prescription vial and shaken. Patients can use the patented product with pills, tablets, capsules, liquids and powders and can then throw away the vial in the household trash.
About DisposeRx, Inc.
North Carolina-based DisposeRx, Inc. is dedicated to decreasing the risks of drug diversion, overdoses, suicides, accidental poisonings and antibiotic resistance by facilitating medication safety behavior change and eradicating the misuse of leftover medications. DisposeRx’s market-leading, patented medication disposal packets and education programs are currently available at 60% of retail pharmacies, 90% of wholesale distributors, and through health plans and provider organizations across the U.S. The company has donated more than 750,000 packets to approximately 450 community non-profits since 2018. For more information, visit DisposeRx.com.
