Kaleo Inc.'s more than 600 percent price increase on its opioid-overdose antidote has cost the Medicare and Medicaid health program $142 million since 2014, according to a report by two U.S. senators.
Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Tom Carper of Delaware said in the report, released Monday, that Kaleo "exploited the opioid crisis" by sharply increasing the price of Evzio between 2014 and 2017. Portman, a Republican, and Carper, a Democrat, run the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs investigative subcommittee.
The senators said that Richmond, Virginia-based Kaleo encouraged doctors' offices to sign paperwork indicating that Evzio, which administers the opioid antidote naloxone, was medically necessary, ensuring it would be covered by government-run health programs even though less-costly alternatives existed.