MADISON — Every year, more than 80,000 people in the United States die from opioid overdoses. Nearly 1,500 of them are in Wisconsin — more than four each day.
“Losing these lives isn’t acceptable in a healthy society,” says Cody Wenthur, an associate professor in the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy. “We don’t have the luxury to do nothing.”
Wenthur and Jay Ford, also an associate professor in the School of Pharmacy, are fighting to bring those numbers down. The two are leading the launch of the Wisconsin Opioid Overdose Response Center, or WOORC.
The regional center, to be based at the School of Pharmacy, will combat the opioid crisis with a special focus on fentanyl, which accounts for over 75% of annual opioid overdose deaths. In March, the U.S. Senate approved a $2 million appropriations request by Sen. Tammy Baldwin as part of the fiscal year 2024 appropriations package to fund the launch of the center.
“The Wisconsin Opioid Overdose Response Center is a true Wisconsin Idea initiative, leveraging the expertise of renowned School of Pharmacy faculty to improve and save lives in every corner of our state, even beyond,” says School of Pharmacy Dean Steve Swanson. “The federal appropriation to help launch this center emphasizes the gravity of what we already know is a very important issue.”
Between October 2024 and September 2025, Ford and Wenthur will be getting WOORC up and running so it can begin to provide community pharmacies around Wisconsin resources including educational information on treating overdoses, life-saving naloxone and fentanyl testing strips.
Wisconsin’s more than 800 community pharmacies are the cornerstone of Wenthur and Ford’s vision for WOORC. They will reach out to and support community pharmacies around the region, getting much-needed tools into both urban and rural parts of Wisconsin.
“There are large areas of the state that are underserved with regard to health care access, and particularly mental health care access,” says Wenthur. “That’s one of the reasons we are so excited about community pharmacies as a way to address this problem — community pharmacy is the most accessible health care resource. Clinics may be hours away, but pharmacies are there, ready and willing to serve. And that’s not unique to Wisconsin.”
The central aim for WOORC is to use pharmacies to increase patient access to treatments for opioid use disorder and opioid overdoses.
To do so, WOORC will coordinate an initiative to save more lives with naloxone, which rapidly reverses the physical effects of an opioid overdose. Pharmacists screen patients for factors that could increase their risk of overdose. In those cases, the pharmacist could dispense naloxone alongside their opioid prescription to use in case of emergency.
Another intervention is training pharmacists to provide long-acting injectable medications for opioid use disorders. For example, injections of naltrexone block the effects of opioid medications, including the pain relief and euphoric feelings that often lead to abuse. Other goals include expanding access to fentanyl test strips, providing more public education about the risks of opioids and how to avoid overdoses and, eventually, the development of new anti-opioid vaccines.
WOORC will take advantage of the many experienced researchers and pharmacists at the School of Pharmacy, but Ford and Wenthur are looking far beyond Madison.
They’re currently connecting with pharmacies and health care professionals across the state to help launch the center’s programs and initiatives, including a key partner: the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin. The statewide organization representing pharmacists will support WOORC’s educational and communication goals, as well as extend their reach among Wisconsin practitioners.
“The mandate for us is to get all around the state and engage with pharmacies in regions being particularly hard hit by the opioid crisis,” Wenthur says.
READ THE FULL STORY: https://pharmacy.wisc.edu/2024/09/09/uw-madison-launches-pharmacy-focused-regional-center-to-combat-the-opioid-crisis/
