NCPO Statement on Combatting the Opioid Crisis
Contact: Lucinda L. Maine, Ph.D., R.Ph.; NCPO President
The National Conference of Pharmaceutical Organizations (NCPO) is a coalition of organizations and associations that represents the discovery, manufacture, and distribution of medications and practitioners that provide effective patient care. Collectively, our organizations represent over 300,000 individual pharmacy practitioners and pharmaceutical scientists, companies engaged in diverse aspects of healthcare delivery, and the nation’s pharmacy regulators and educators whose work advances human health.
The organizations of NCPO are:
- American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP)
- American Pharmacists Association (APhA)
- American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP)
- Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM)
- Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO)
- Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA)
- Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA)
- National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP)
- National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS)
- National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA)
- Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
The National Institute of Drug Abuse states, "every day more than 90 Americans die after overdosing on opioids. The misuse of and addiction to opioids—including prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl—is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare.”
The member organizations of NCPO collectively support immediate action on components of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis report presented to the White House. NCPO supports the shared and desired outcomes held by the Commission during its tenure “to combat and treat the scourge of drug abuse and addiction.” The NCPO organizations respectfully request the opportunity to dialogue with the President and others in the Administration to discuss specific recommendations and plans for implementation and identify strategies to enhance the support of the stakeholder communities represented by the NCPO organizations.
Each of the organizations in NCPO is battling the opioid crisis in its own ways with significant resources and expertise. Many of these efforts are supportive of state and federal efforts and agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, with whom we are currently working and to whom we commit to increasing our collaboration. Efforts include professional and patient education on effective pain management and treatment, medication assisted treatment for substance use disorder, prevention and rescue, effective prescribing practices, alternative therapies, and voluntary medication take-back programs.
The NCPO organizations and our members are committed to advancing our individual and collaborative efforts and working in concert with the Administration on implementation of components of the Commission's report. Our goal is to make meaningful progress in reducing the inappropriate treatment of pain, addiction and the loss of life associated with opioid use disorder, while ensuring patients with legitimate need for pain management have timely access to appropriate treatment regimens.
