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UW–Madison center combating opioid overdoses in Wisconsin highlighted in Sen. Baldwin visit

February 4, 2025 By Katie McMullen

Just months after launching, the new Wisconsin Opioid Overdose Response Center (WOORC) is already making important strides toward its mission to equip Wisconsin pharmacies with innovative tools to prevent opioid deaths.

“Since our grant started in September, we’ve been sprinting,” said Cody Wenthur, associate professor in the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy and co-director of WOORC.

The regional center aims to increase patient access to treatments for opioid use disorder and opioid overdoses. That work includes providing community pharmacies around Wisconsin with educational information on treating overdoses, life-saving naloxone and fentanyl testing strips.

This week, Wenthur joined his co-director Jay Ford, associate professor in the School of Pharmacy, and members of the WOORC team to share an update on the center’s progress with Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who helped to secure a one-time, $2 million grant to launch the center during the last federal budget cycle.

During her visit, Baldwin noted WOORC’s mission “could not be more reflective of the Wisconsin Idea” — a point emphasized by the ongoing and expanding efforts of the center’s Pharmacy Solutions Implementation Specialists who are working to build out the WOORC network across the state.

“Prior to this, I worked as a pharmacy technician, and I saw every day how pharmacists are super communicators—they’re good at explaining medication opioids to people and showing the risks involved and how to stay safe,” shared Jaxom Smith, one of the Pharmacy Solution Implementation Specialists. “When I heard about Jay and Cody starting the center, it immediately clicked that this would allow pharmacists to expand that information to a larger population.”

At a roundtable discussion that included School of Pharmacy and university leadership during Baldwin’s visit, Ford also emphasized the collaborative nature of WOORC, explaining that feedback and insights gathered from statewide organizations, local government offices, law enforcement and other community groups have helped guide the design and implementation of WOORC’s mission. “We’re not doing this alone,” he said.

Michelle Haese, director of Substance Use Initiatives at the Wisconsin Department of Human Services, also joined Senator Baldwin on her visit to the School of Pharmacy and emphasized initiatives like WOORC fit into a broader continuum of care essential to addressing the opioid overdose epidemic. “This is about saving lives,” stated Haese.

In addition to roundtable discussion about WOORC’s progress, Baldwin’s visit also included a tour of the clinical trial dosing space and Wenthur Lab, where she spoke with researchers and students who are supporting development of technologies to combat next-generation overdose threats.

“Here, they’re being extremely proactive in the programming, as well as the research to try and put an end to this epidemic,” Baldwin noted following her tour.

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