Gatekeeper Innovation, Inc.’s new Rx Locking Cap is now available in 7,886 Walgreen locations across the country. Find out why this innovative drug diversion device is a perfect fit for Walgreen’s aggressive battle against the opioid epidemic.
How Walgreens is Battling the Opioid Epidemic
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an average of more than 130 people in the United States died each day in 2017 due to drug overdoses involving opioids (including prescription opioid medication or illicit opioid drugs).
Walgreens is one of the largest retail pharmacies in the country, with approximately 9,021 drugstores with a presence in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. As of August 2020, approximately 78 percent of the U.S. population lives within five miles of a Walgreens. The retail pharmacy filled 287.6 million prescriptions (including immunizations) in 2020.
Walgreens has launched a multi-million dollar effort to help address the U.S. opioid epidemic, with a plan that includes steps to:
- Save lives, first and foremost
- Prevent misuse and curb abuse of prescription drugs
- Reduce future prescription drug abuse
In addition to carrying the Rx Locking Cap and offering locking medication storage options in its pharmacies, Walgreens is stocking Narcan, an FDA-approved nasal spray form of naloxone that pharmacists can dispense without requiring a prescription in all U.S pharmacies. The retail pharmacy also offers safe medication disposal kiosks for patients to safely dispose of unused or unneeded medications.
Rx Locking Cap Deters Diversion
Gatekeeper Innovation’s Rx Locking Cap helps prevent diversion and misuse of prescription medications while still allowing consumers to use the pharmacy’s vials.
The combination locking cap can be added to opioids, benzodiazepines, and other prescription medications that bring a high diversion risk.
Gatekeeper has been helping families safeguard their medications with its Safer Lock family of products, including the Safer Lock combination locking pill bottle and Safer Lock Box. The Rx Locking Cap is Gatekeeper’s first supply-side intervention solution to help pharmacies protect against diversion at the time of dispensing.
Gatekeeper shipped approximately 35,000 Rx Locking Caps to Walgreens retail pharmacies across the country as part of its national distribution agreement in the fall of 2020.
“While the opioid epidemic is a very complex issue, it is an honor to work with industry leaders to provide access to our medication safe dispensing devices as a vital piece to this puzzle,” says Gatekeeper CEO Kevin Kane.
Add the Rx Locking Cap to your pharmacy, formulary, or covered benefits. Contact Gatekeeper Innovation Inc. for more information.
