Pharma Exec Gets 5½ Years for Pushing Opioid
The founder of an Arizona pharmaceutical company was sentenced to 5½ years in prison Thursday for orchestrating a bribery and kickback scheme prosecutors said helped fuel the opioid crisis.
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opioids
Opioid Money Can Be Used to Fight Meth & Cocaine
Alarmed by a deadly new twist in the nation’s drug addiction crisis, the government will allow states to use federal money earmarked for the opioid epidemic to help growing numbers of people struggling with meth and cocaine.
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Oklahoma Takes on More Opioid Makers in New Lawsuit
Oklahoma officials sued opioid distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen in state court Monday, claiming the companies failed to stop and report suspiciously large orders of opioid prescription drugs that were diverted and killed scores of addicts.
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Oklahoma Reaches $8.75 Million Settlement With Opiate Maker
The state of Oklahoma will receive $8.75 million from two pharmaceutical companies in a deal announced Friday that will end legal action the state was considering against the opioid manufacturers.
Read morePharmacies Blame Doctors for Opioid Crisis
Doctors and other health care practitioners who write prescriptions bear ultimate responsibility for improper distribution of opioids to patients, not pharmacists who are obliged to fill those prescriptions, a series of pharmacy chains claim in federal court.
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Slew of New Laws Take Effect Nationwide on New Year’s Day
The new year will bring new fees for some owners of electric vehicles, as an increasing number of states seek to plug in to fresh revenue sources to offset forgone gas taxes. In Hawaii, the charge will be $50. In Kansas, $100. In Alabama and Ohio, $200.
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Veteran Bankruptcy Judge Presides Over Purdue Pharma Case
The judge overseeing the bankruptcy of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma warns that real-life court cases don’t unfold like “Perry Mason.” But he’s afraid this one might come to resemble “Dr. Strangelove.”
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Australia Fines Sackler-Owned Opioid Maker Over Advertising
Australia’s drug regulator has fined a pharmaceutical company owned by the billionaire Sackler family over what it dubbed misleading advertising for one of its opioid painkillers, as the country grapples with surging rates of opioid prescriptions and related deaths.
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Walk-in Addiction Clinics Offer Meds First, and Fast
Doctor in some addiction clinics are working to spread a philosophy called “medication first,” in which opioid addicts get the drug buprenorphine first, without requirements for counseling, abstinence or even a commitment to recovery.
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Michigan Sues Opioid Distributors Under Drug Dealer Law
Michigan sued a group of opioid distributors Tuesday under a law used to go after illegal drug traffickers, becoming the first state in the nation to treat the pharmaceutical companies like drug dealers in court.
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Sackler-Owned Opioid Maker Pushes Drug for Overdoses
The gleaming white booth towered over the medical conference in Italy in October, advertising a new brand of antidote for opioid overdoses. “Be prepared. Get naloxone. Save a life,” the slogan on its walls said.
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Tramadol, Billed as ‘Safer’ Opioid, Wreaks Worldwide Havoc
Reports rolled in with escalating urgency — pills seized by the truckload, pills swallowed by schoolchildren, pills in the pockets of dead terrorists.
Read moreOpioid Overdoses
A former anesthesiologist was properly convicted of manslaughter for prescribing opioids to two patients who overdosed on the drugs, a New York appeals court ruled. Other patients and their families testified that his pain management clinic was essentially a “pill mill” where he excessively prescribed addictive drugs and ignored patients’ abuse of the meds.
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Dying Too Young: Deaths Spike Among Working-Age US Adults
More Americans are dying while still in the prime working years of the lives, according to a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Is Pot a Good Substitute for Opioids? Dueling Studies Disagree
Scientists continue to debate on whether cannabis can serve as a meaningful opioid substitute, with two conflicting studies published Tuesday further fanning the flames of contention.
Read moreOklahoma Judge Lowers Opioid Damages by $107 Million
The Oklahoma judge that awarded the state $572 million from Johnson & Johnson in the first opioid crisis lawsuit to go to trial formally reduced his damages award by $107 million Friday, admitting to a three-digit calculation error.
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China Sentences 9 Fentanyl Dealers After US Tip
A Chinese court sentenced nine fentanyl traffickers on Thursday in the culmination of a rare collaboration between Chinese and U.S. law enforcement to crack down on global networks that manufacture and distribute lethal synthetic opioids.
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Meth, not Fentanyl, Is Top Killer in Western US
Fentanyl is driving drug overdose deaths in the U.S. overall, but in the Western half of the country, it’s a different story. Meth is the bigger killer, a new government report shows.
Read moreMajor Opioid Trial Averted With $260 Million Settlement
Striking an 11th-hour deal to avoid a highly anticipated bellwether trial over the nationwide opioid epidemic, three drug distributors and one manufacturer reached a $260 million settlement Monday with two Ohio counties.
Read moreOpioid Negotiations Fail to Produce Deal Just Before Trial
Negotiations aimed at reaching a major settlement in the nation’s opioid litigation reached an impasse Friday.
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