Reverse the Silence Campaign Casts a National Spotlight on Overdose Risks Associated with Opioid Use

• Emergent BioSolutions joins forces with an alliance of advocacy organizations that share a common goal to empower open communication and address the stigma of opioid overdoses, which are oftentimes accidental.
  
• Professional football player Darren Waller and lifestyle influencer Dani Schaffer openly share their stories of addiction, overdose and tragedy in new television and radio spots airing across the country.
• New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that over 93,000 Americans lost their lives to a drug overdose in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, of which 8 in 10 deaths involved opioids, including prescription opioids (natural and semi-synthetic opioids, and methadone), heroin, and synthetic opioids (primarily illicit fentanyl).
  

GAITHERSBURG, Md., July 26, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --  An alliance of national nonprofit organizations comprised of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), Mothers Against Prescription Drug Abuse (MAPDA), SAFE Project, and Shatterproof, sponsored by Emergent BioSolutions Inc., (NYSE:EBS) today announced the launch of a new public awareness campaign, Reverse the Silence, which features television and radio spots that educate and help support people who may be at risk or know someone at risk of an opioid overdose.

Lifestyle influencer Dani Schaffer, who lost her brother, Scott Anthony Molinari, to an accidental overdose in 2018 at the age of 33, is using her platform to talk about opioid use and ways to be prepared for an overdose emergency. And professional athlete Darren Waller, who for many years lived with an opioid dependency that started at a young age, is now sharing his story of struggle and triumph after overdosing in his car in 2017.

“At the age of 15, I was introduced to opioids and developed a dependency that helped mask how I felt on the inside, but the reality is that I felt completely isolated, and no one knew what I was going through,” said Waller. “Reverse the Silence means no longer remaining quiet and allowing others to dictate the narrative for those of us who are living with addiction or are on the journey to recovery. I’m telling my story because too many lives have been lost to overdoses.”

An accidental opioid overdose can happen to anyone taking opioids, across any community. The CDC’s 2020 provisional data found a substantial increase in drug overdose deaths across the country that coincided with the implementation of widespread mitigation measures for the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the CDC, over 93,000 drug overdose deaths occurred in the 12-month period ending in December 2020, representing a worsening of the drug overdose epidemic and the largest number of drug overdoses for a 12-month period ever recorded.