Report: Big Pharma Money to Doctors Led to Spike in Opioid Deaths
(CN) – As the U.S. opioid epidemic peaked in 2015, so did the amount of money spent to market prescription
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Purdue Pharma Family Added to $500M Opioid Suit
A year after suing their company Purdue Pharma and others for $500 million, New York City formally accused the wealthy Sackler family of participating in a decades-long campaign to mislead the public about the dangers of OxyContin.
Read moreResearchers Create App to Detect Opioid Overdoses
A new phone app from a group of researchers at the University of Washington will monitor vital signs and can detect when a person overdoses on opioid drugs, according to a new study published in Science Translational Medicine on Wednesday.
Read moreOpioid Makers Must Face Racketeering Claims
A federal judge in Ohio refused Wednesday to dismiss racketeering claims against Purdue Pharma and other drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies in a massive collection of cases blaming them for the nation’s opioid epidemic.
Read moreJudge Blocks $600M Charge for NY Opioid Crisis
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the laudable aims to curb New York’s opioid crisis are not enough to make pharmaceutical manufactures pay $600 million toward the cost of treating drug abusers.
Read moreScientists Test Vaccine to Combat Opioid Addiction
Researchers say a new vaccine currently being tested on lab mice may one day help curb the opioid epidemic and assist first responders who are inadvertently exposed to powerful drugs like fentanyl, according to a study released on Wednesday.
Read moreSeattle Cleared to Move Ahead With Safe Drug-Use Sites
A ballot initiative to ban the funding of safe consumption sites for opioid users is off the table, after the Washington State Supreme Court found Thursday that local voters can’t override a county’s authority to set its budget.
Read morePowerful Opioid Pill Gets FDA Approval
Announcing the approval of a tablet alternative to a powerful opioid normally delivered intravenously, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration promised Friday that the drug Dsuvia will be very tightly regulated.
Read moreACLU Sues Over Methadone Access for Inmates
Denial of methadone to prison inmates with opioid addictions constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, the ACLU claimed in federal court Wednesday.
Read moreIllinois Approves Medical Pot as Opioid Alternative
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed a bill Tuesday that will allow doctors to prescribe medical marijuana as a replacement for opioid painkillers.
Read moreNew Massachusetts Law Bans Co-Pay Coupons for OxyContin
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed a comprehensive anti-opioid bill on Tuesday that increases substance-abuse services for those incarcerated in the commonwealth, while also barring the use of co-pay coupons that some drugmakers offer for opioids.
Read moreConstruction Sector Leads in Massachusetts Opioid Deaths
Opioid overdoses cause 1 in 3 construction-worker deaths in Massachusetts, a new report from the state has found.
Read moreOpioid Shareholders
A hyper-aggressive campaign by Insys Therapeutics directors to get doctors to push Subsys, a fentanyl sublingual spray, for off-label uses, caused the share price to plummet by 75 percent, shareholders say in a federal class action.
Read moreUS Still Consumes Huge Amount of Opioids, Despite Efforts
Prescription opioid use has not declined over the last decade despite increased efforts to educate patients and doctors in order to prevent abuse, according to a study published Wednesday.
Read moreJudge: Opioid Distribution Data Not for Public Consumption
A federal judge has ruled that state and local governments cannot publicize federal government data about where prescription opioids were distributed — a blow to news organizations seeking to report more deeply on the nation’s overdose and addiction crisis.
Read moreBig Pharma Assails $600M Demand by NY on Opioid Crisis
Casting itself as a scapegoat of the opioid epidemic, an drug-distribution trade group brought a federal complaint in protest of New York’s attempt to make Big Pharma pay $600 million toward the cost of treating drug abusers.
Read moreHundreds Charged in Massive Opioid Crackdown
In what Attorney General Jeff Session called the biggest health care fraud enforcement action in U.S. history, the Justice Department said Thursday that it charged 601 people in dozens of cases involving opioid prescriptions.
Read moreOpioid-Tainted Handouts Alarm Sheriff in Houston
Texas sheriff warned the public Tuesday about the dangers of fentanyl after a deputy removed a flyer from her car’s windshield, began to feel lightheaded and was hospitalized, and the opioid was found on another flyer in the area.
Read moreOpioid Abuse
According to a 300-page federal class action against Purdue Pharma et al., within the next hour six Americans will die from opioid overdoses; two babies will be born dependent on opioids; and drug manufacturers will earn $2.7 million from selling the drugs.
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