Esketamine gets a slow rollout, despite boosterism

President Trump took the unusual step of endorsing a prescription drug by name last August, announcing his wholehearted support of esketamine and proclaiming that “results are incredible” with the antidepressant. He was urging the Department of Veterans Affairs, he said, to buy “a lot” of it.

As of last month, just 15 veterans nationwide had been treated with the nasal spray, STAT’s Megan Thielking writes. And the drug, called Spravato, is only available at seven of the VA’s facilities — out of more than 1,200.

Part of the reason may be that it just takes time to get new drugs covered and administered. But it's also true that esketamine’s efficacy is still contested by experts: The drug’s data have been “nothing to write home about,” one psychiatrist told STAT.