SILVER SPRING, Md., Sept. 21 (UPI) -- With an increasing number of overdose deaths due to prescription opioid drugs each year -- there were 28,000 in 2014 -- the U.S. Food and Drug Administration thinks at least some of them could be prevented if more people knew where and how to be treated with naloxone.
The FDA announced a contest and code-a-thon Wednesday for the development of a smartphone app to help drug users find a nearby location for naloxone, a drug that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.
Estimates suggest abuse of the painkillers result in more than 1,000 people going to the emergency room and 78 people dying every day. The epidemic is expensive, too, as care for those in the throes of an opioid addiction, treatment for people who overdose and lost productivity at work costs the United States about $80 billion per year.
Recent studies have shown drugs like Suboxone, which can treat opioid addiction, are not being prescribed by doctors, even as new methods of delivering it and other anti-addiction drugs are under development because of the problem.
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Naloxone is largely available only by prescription or at hospitals, though its availability is spreading as stores such as Walgreen's start to sell it over the counter and without a prescription.
Efforts are also being made for more first responders and family members of people using the drugs to carry them, but the FDA says this is not nearly enough to prevent death from overdose in the myriad situations it can occur.
"The goal of this competition is to develop a low-cost, scalable, crowd-sourced mobile application that addresses this issue of accessibility," Dr. Peter Lurie, associate commissioner for public health strategy and analysis at the FDA, said in a press release. "Mobile phone applications have been developed to educate laypersons on how to recognize an overdose and administer naloxone, and to connect bystanders with individuals in need of other medical services, such as CPR. To date, however, no application is available to connect carriers of naloxone with nearby opioid overdose victims."
Teams entering the FDA contest must register by October 7, when they will gain access to background resources on the opioid epidemic, formulations of naloxone, recommendations for its use and FDA guidance on mobile medical application development.
The FDA will then hold a two-day code-a-thon virtually and at its campus in Rockville, Md., on October 19 and 20. All code will be made open-source and publicly accessible, with competition participants required to submit a functional prototype of their app by November 7. The highest-scoring app in an evaluation of entrants will be awarded $40,000, and the agency will fund its further development for eventual release and use.
"With a dramatic increase in the number of opioid overdose deaths in the U.S., there's a vital need to harness the power of new technologies to quickly and effectively link individuals experiencing an overdose -- or a bystander such as a friend or family member -- with someone who carries and can administer the life-saving medication," said Dr. Robert Califf, commissioner of the FDA. "Through this competition, we are tapping public health-focused innovators to help bring technological solutions to a real-world problem that is costing the U.S. thousands of lives each year."
