The purchase and usage of Naloxone in clinical settings in the last ten years: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for figures for each of the last ten years which show, how many doses of Naloxone have:

(a) been procured/purchased per year

(b) for what price per dose in each year, and

(c) how many expired and were disposed of in each year and

(d) how many were used in each year.

You also asked about the cost of any advertising of the Naloxone programme, broken down by platform used to advertise, and broken down by year.

Response

The information relating to points (a) and (c) - The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because the Scottish Government is not responsible for the subject. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

However, you might wish to note that proportion of the orders for all types of naloxone in clinical settings are made via the hospital stock order system (data held in Prescribing and Medicines | Hospital Medicines Utilisation Database (HMUD) | Health Topics | ISD Scotland). It may be that NHS Boards would have the information you are looking for.

The information relating to point (b) - The price of Prenoxad (the injectable form of Naloxone) has ranged in the UK from around £21.50 in 2012 to around £27.72 including VAT in 2022. The price of Nyxoid (intranasal form of Naloxone), which has been registered to use in the UK since 2018, ranges, however, the average price is set at around £47.52 per unit (two single-dose containers) including VAT. Please note that these prices vary depending on VAT liability and the number of units purchased.

The information relating to point (d) - number of Naloxone kits (THN - Take Home Naloxone) used each year since 2011/12 is available from National Naloxone programme Scotland - Monitoring report 2019/20 2020/21 - National naloxone programme Scotland: annual - Publications - Public Health Scotland. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

The information relating to point (e) - the Scottish Government commissioned Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) to develop the 'How to save a life' national, multi-media campaign to raise awareness of signs of overdose and the use of Naloxone. SDF received £800,000 in 2021/2022 financial year for that purpose.

However, please note that The Scottish Government does not have the breakdown of costs as per your request. Although the campaign was fully funded by Scottish Government, it was fully co-ordinated by Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) and designed and produced by a professional communications producer. You may wish to contact SDF with regards to your request, however, please be aware that as a registered charity they are not subject to FOISA requests, therefore they are not obliged to respond.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.