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An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

Legal Updates

New Hampshire Sues Purdue Pharma over Opioid Marketing

Nate Raymond  |  

(Reuters)—New Hampshire sued OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP on Tuesday, joining several state and local governments in accusing the drugmaker of engaging in deceptive marketing practices that have helped fuel a national opioid addiction epidemic. The lawsuit filed in Merrimack County Superior Court claimed that Purdue Pharma significantly downplayed the risk of addiction posed by…

U.S. Governors Urge Trump to Make Health Insurance Payments

Reuters Staff  |  

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—Democratic and Republican U.S. governors on Wednesday urged the Trump administration, as well as Congress, to continue funding payments to health insurance companies that make Obamacare plans affordable, calling it critical to stabilizing the insurance marketplace. In a statement, governors joined insurers pressuring Republican President Donald Trump to stand down from threats to cut…

U.S. Launches Opioid Fraud and Detection Unit

Sarah N. Lynch  |  

(Reuters)—U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions unveiled on Wednesday a plan to go after doctors and pharmacies suspected of healthcare fraud by over-prescribing and unbridled distribution of addictive pain medications known as opioids. In a speech at a Columbus, Ohio, police academy, Sessions said a new Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit pilot program would also…

U.S. Senator Expands Opioid Probe to Distributors, Drugmakers

Reuters Staff  |  

(Reuters)—U.S. Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill on Thursday expanded an investigation into the causes of the opioid crisis plaguing the country, seeking information from four more drugmakers and three drug distributors. The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is focusing on the distribution of opioids and the efforts companies made to…

Mallinckrodt Settles U.S. Opioid Drug Probe for $35 million

Nate Raymond  |  

(Reuters)—Mallinckrodt Plc., one of the largest manufacturers of the generic opioid painkiller oxycodone, will pay $35 million to resolve allegations that it failed to report suspicious drug orders, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday. The deal, in which Mallinckrodt did not admit wrongdoing, marked a record settlement of claims that a drugmaker failed to properly…

CVS to Pay $5 Million to Resolve U.S. Drug Probe

Nate Raymond  |  

(Reuters)—CVS Health Corp. has paid $5 million to resolve allegations that pharmacies it operates in California failed to keep and maintain accurate records of prescription drugs, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday. The deal follows an investigation that began in 2012 after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration noticed an increased number of thefts and unexplained…

Senate May Vote on Revised Healthcare Bill Next Week

Yasmeen Abutaleb and Susan Cornwell  |  

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—U.S. Senate Republicans said Tuesday they will seek to bring their healthcare overhaul to the Senate floor next week after a lengthy intraparty struggle, but it remained unclear whether they had the votes to pass the measure or even what form it would finally take. With his reputation as a master strategist on the…

Generic Drug Group Sues to Block Maryland Price-Gouging Law

Nate Raymond  |  

(Reuters)—The main U.S. trade group for generic pharmaceutical companies filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to block a recently adopted Maryland law that lets the state attorney general sue generic drugmakers that sharply raise prices. The Association for Accessible Medicines filed the lawsuit in federal court in Baltimore to seek an injunction that would block…

U.S. State Attorneys General Probe Opioid Drug Companies

Nate Raymond  |  

(Reuters)—A bipartisan group of state attorneys general announced on Thursday that they are jointly investigating the marketing and sales practices of drug companies that manufacture opioid painkillers at the center of a national addiction epidemic. Attorneys general from states including Massachusetts, Texas, Illinois and Pennsylvania announced the investigation two weeks after Ohio Attorney General Mike…