NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Many U.S. clinicians aren’t following risk-mitigation practices for opioid prescribing, new findings show. “In response to this national opioid crisis, consensus-based safer opioid prescribing guidelines have been published and state laws regulating opioid prescribing practices have been enacted,” Daniel P. Alford, MD, of Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues write in…
Search results for: opioid epidemic
Former Insys CEO Pleads Guilty to Opioid Kickback Scheme
BOSTON (Reuters)—The former chief executive of Insys Therapeutics Inc pleaded guilty on Wednesday to participating in a nationwide scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe an addictive opioid medication and has agreed to become a government witness. Michael Babich, who resigned as the Arizona-based drugmaker’s CEO in 2015, pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to…
Insys to Pay $150 Million to Settle U.S. Opioid Kickback Probe
(Reuters)—Insys Therapeutics said on Wednesday it had reached a deal to pay at least $150 million to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into claims that the drugmaker paid doctors kickbacks to prescribe a powerful opioid medication. The tentative deal announced by the Arizona-based drugmaker marked a major step in Insys’ efforts to resolve an…
Balancing Opioid Addiction Risk with Pain Management Needs
SAN DIEGO—During a session at the ACR/ARHP 2017 Annual Meeting Nov. 3–8, three representatives from the federal government described several of the government’s varied national strategies and agencies that are tackling pain. All of these strategies are affected by the current national epidemic of opioid overdoses and the need for safer analgesic prescribing. But the…
Opioid Makers Paid Millions to Advocacy Groups
(Reuters)—Five opioid manufacturers, including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP, have paid more than $10 million to advocacy groups and doctors tied to them, many of whom amplified industry messages supporting the use of the painkillers, a U.S. Senate report said on Monday.1 The report, released by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), says groups who received the…
Neurontin Prescriptions Surge Amid Opioid Crisis
(Reuters Health)—Prescriptions for nerve pain medicines like Neurontin and Lyrica have more than tripled in recent years, driven by increased use among chronically ill older adults and patients already taking opioids, a U.S. study suggests. The proportion of U.S. adults prescribed Neurontin and other drugs in the same family of medicines climbed from 1.2% in…
U.S. Life Expectancy Fell in 2016 as Opioid Overdoses Surged—CDC
NEW YORK (Reuters)—Life expectancy in the United States dipped in 2016 as the number of deaths due to opioid drug overdoses surged and total drug overdose deaths rose 21% to 63,600, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday. Life expectancy fell to 78.6 years, a decrease of 0.1 year from 2015,…
New Jersey Sues OxyContin Maker, Links Marketing to Opioid Crisis
(Reuters)—New Jersey on Tuesday sued Purdue Pharma LP, accusing the OxyContin maker of contributing to the state’s opioid crisis through deceptive marketing to doctors and patients, including the elderly and the “opioid-naive.” Christopher Porrino, the New Jersey attorney general, faulted what he called a decade-long marketing campaign of “almost inconceivable callousness and irresponsibility, and said…
Billionaire Insys Founder Charged in U.S. Opioid Bribe Case
BOSTON (Reuters)—The billionaire founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc was arrested on Thursday on U.S. charges he participated in a scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe a fentanyl-based cancer pain drug, marking a step by authorities to fight the opioid epidemic. John Kapoor, Insys’ majority shareholder who stepped down as chief executive in January, was charged…
Trump Declares Opioids a U.S. Public Health Emergency
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—U.S. President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency on Thursday, stopping short of a national emergency declaration he promised months ago that would have freed up more federal money. Responding to a growing problem wreaking havoc in rural areas, Trump’s declaration will redirect federal resources and loosen regulations to combat…
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- …
- 9
- Next Page »