APhA among group joining in fight against opioid abuse

The National Conference of Pharmaceutical Organizations (NCPO), a coalition that includes APhA, issued a public statement seeking support from the Trump administration to address the growing opioid epidemic. The coalition is a group of organizations and associations that represent more than 300,000 pharmacy practitioners and pharmaceutical scientists, companies engaged in health care delivery, pharmacy regulators, and educators. "APhA, along with the other NCPO members, is individually and jointly committed to identifying best practices to combat this public health crisis and moving swiftly to implement those practices across the country," said APhA executive vice president and chief executive officer Thomas Menighan. APhA has actively promoted the inclusion of pharmacists as a necessary resource to curb the opioid crisis and has advocated for their role in providing patient care services, from utilizing prescription drug monitoring programs to providing patients naloxone. "Pharmacists are and always have been on the frontlines of the opioid crisis, and will be a part of the many solutions to the problem," said Menighan. "They are actively working with patients and their communities on a daily basis, and APhA's priority is to make sure that policy makers and our fellow health care providers know what pharmacists can do to make meaningful progress in the fight against opioids."