In recent months, the pharmaceutical industry has pushed to make sure that naloxone can keep up with fentanyl, engaging in an “opioid-antagonist arms race” to bring stronger forms of naloxone to market, says Lucas Hill, a pharmacy professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies opioids. First, in April, the FDA approved a higher dose of a nasal spray marketed as Kloxxado, and then in October, the agency green-lit a higher dosage of Zimhi, an injection. These dosages represent significant increases in strength compared with previous forms of naloxone: Kloxxado is twice as strong as Narcan and Zimhi is 12 times as strong as the standard injection—the equivalent of using a power drill instead of a screwdriver.

And yet when it comes to naloxone, more isn’t always better. Experts I talked with suggested that a more potent form of the drug could backfire, compounding naloxone’s harmful side effects with no significant benefit over the lower dosages. The pharmaceutical industry certainly has a role to play in alleviating the opioid crisis, but the impulse to strengthen naloxone reduces the problem to a battle between more potent forms of opioids and more potent forms of the antidotes that neutralize them. If only the way out of this crisis were that simple.