With a new year in full swing, HDA President and CEO John M. Gray looked ahead to the organization’s 2019 priorities (along with other industry association executives) as part of the Chain Drug Review “Pharmacy Outlook” feature.

A new report by Avalere Health, "Trends in Opioid Use: History, Background, and Origins of the Epidemic," comes at a critical point in the broader discussion about opioid abuse and misuse, and provides important context around the clinical, regulatory and policy milestones that contributed to the public health epidemic and impacted the national response to the crisis.

For the past several months, HDA has been collaborating with our pharmacy partners at Allied Against Opioid Abuse (AAOA), the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) and the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations (NASPA), to develop a suite of resources specific to the pharmacy community. We are pleased that last week, those resources were mailed to thousands of pharmacists across the country and released online at www.AgainstOpioidAbuse.org/PharmacyToolkit.

HDA and its member companies are committed to reversing our nation’s opioid abuse epidemic. That is why the Alliance is working with stakeholders in communities nationwide to educate and raise awareness about the dangers associated with opioid abuse and misuse.

Disposing of unused prescription opioids safely and as soon as they are no longer needed can help prevent these medicines from falling into the wrong hands. Data show that opioid misuse often starts in the home, with more than 40 percent of those who misused prescription pain relievers obtaining the medication from a friend or relative for free.