Days before starting work on the Opioids Conference Committee, U.S. Representative Patrick Meehan took the time to visit Radnor’s manufacturer of Narcan, the nasal spray that revives people overdosing on opioids, writes Kathleen Carey for the Daily Local News.

While naloxone has been in use for more than four decades, Adapt Pharma, founded only three years ago, was the first to develop a solid unit nasal spray to help administer the naloxone on the spot.

“It was expedited and approved by the FDA within four months,” said Mike Kelly, Adapt’s President of U.S. operations.

The first customer for the new nasal spray was Delaware County, and it is now used by numerous police departments in the area that administer the drug when someone is overdosing on opioids.

“All you have to do is stick it in someone’s nose and then there’s one press and that’s it,” said Thom Duddy, Adapt’s Executive Director of Marketing and Communications. “It’s a mist so it attaches onto the nasal mucosa, goes into the bloodstream rapidly, and it goes into the frontal cortex and wipes off the opioid on the receptors to the brain.”

After the company tour, Meehan expressed his thanks for the visit.

“I appreciated that they were here in the backyard,” he said. “I wanted to make sure that I got here in a timely basis before we went down and did the conference committee on the opioid bill.”

Read more about the visit in the Daily Local News by clicking here, and check out previous DELCO Today coverage of Narcan by clicking here.