Pfizer manufacturing problems leave nonprofits paying exorbitant prices for dwindling supplies of life-saving naloxone.

As the United States faces an unprecedented surge in opioid overdoses, harm reduction groups are seeing shortages in naloxone, a usually affordable and easy-to-use medication that reverses overdoses and has been credited with saving many lives.

Instead, the dangerous shortage of naloxone is all about soaring prices.

Community groups working to prevent overdose deaths are now paying up to 30 times more for the life-saving medication – at a time when more Americans than ever are dying from overdoses.

The simultaneous rise in overdoses and the lack of affordable naloxone is a “perfect storm”, Amanda Latimore, director of the Center for Addiction Research and Effective Solutions, told the Guardian.

Drug giant Pfizer reached a deal with the Opioid Safety and Naloxone Network (OSNN) Buyers Club in 2012 to provide its injectable medication at low cost for harm reduction groups, which work closely with people with substance abuse disorders to prevent overdose deaths.

But Pfizer ran into problems in manufacturing doses of naloxone earlier this year, and the company temporarily stopped supplying the affordable medication to the community groups battling overdoses.

But meanwhile, thousands of people are dying from overdoses without enough medication to reverse them, as other drug firms have not responded to the supply problems by lowering their prices.

There is no reason other companies couldn’t cut their prices to help fill the gaps left by Pfizer’s manufacturing issues, Dasgupta said, except for one:.

But even if pharmaceutical companies dropped the price for harm reduction groups, he said, they were still “making their profit off institutional buyers”.

Harm reduction groups used to buy naloxone from Pfizer to create kits that cost about $2.50 each.

The federal government could step in to make the prices more affordable and consistent, “but that just hasn’t happened yet”, Latimore said.

The Cares Act passed last year granted new powers to the FDA for making prescription drugs like naloxone available over the counter, which would significantly reduce ordering issues, Dasgupta said.