The Biden administration is easing some of the two-decade old restrictions that made it difficult for providers to prescribe buprenorphine, a gold standard medication used to treat dependence in people suffering from opioid use disorder.
Statement from Daliah Heller, Director of Drug Use Initiatives at Vital Strategies:
“The United States is in the midst of the worst overdose epidemic in its history, with more than 87,000 lives lost in the last year alone and deaths rising sharply for Black Americans. Making it easier for healthcare providers to prescribe buprenorphine to those who need it is a practical strategy that will save lives.
We applaud the Biden Administration for taking concrete action to address the overdose crisis. This change should further encourage the medical community to incorporate buprenorphine treatment into routine healthcare practice, and make evidence-based care for opioid use disorder a standard for healthcare delivery. It strengthens the public health response to the overdose epidemic, and we hope to see a corresponding expansion in access to this important tool for preventing overdose. It is time for the medical community to overcome stigma against people who use drugs and make lifesaving buprenorphine available to the tens of thousands who can benefit from it. This is especially true for providers seeing Black patients, for whom the urgency of the overdose crisis is further exacerbated by the racism in healthcare practice.”
About Vital Strategies
Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible.
To find out more, please visit vstrategystage.wpengine.com or Twitter @VitalStrat.
About Vital Strategies’ Overdose Prevention Program
In November 2018, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a $50 million investment to address the country’s overdose crisis. The initiative—a first-of-its-kind partnership between Vital Strategies, Pew Charitable Trusts, CDC Foundation, and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health—is helping up to 10 states implement solutions over three years to strengthen and scale up evidence-based, data-driven interventions to reduce risks of overdose and save lives.