Latest Drugs Headlines
All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Reimagining Health Care After CVS Takeover of Aetna: Viewpoint
Dec 28 2018 // CVS Health Corp. CEO Larry Merlo is a 28-year veteran of the company who helped lead its transformation from a regional drugstore chain into a pharmacy giant. Now, after guiding CVS through its $69 billion acquisition of...
Delaware Judge Says Fired Medical Marijuana User Can Pursue Lawsuit
Dec 28 2018 // A Delaware judge has ruled that a medical marijuana user fired from his factory job after failing a drug test can pursue a lawsuit against his former employer. Jeremiah Chance was fired in 2016 from his job as a yard...
Data Show Car Accidents Up in States That First Legalized Marijuana
Dec 28 2018 // Crashes are up by as much as six percent in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, compared with neighboring states that have not yet legalized marijuana for recreational use, according to research from the Insurance...
Report: DEA, Distributors Not Doing Enough to Fix West Virginia Opioid Crisis
Dec 27 2018 // A congressional report on prescription pill dumping in West Virginia blames U.S. prescription drug distributors and the Drug Enforcement Administration for not doing enough to help mitigate the nation’s opioid...
Former Insys CEO Babich Pleads Guilty to Opioid Prescription Bribe Scheme
Dec 27 2018 // The former chief executive of Insys Therapeutics Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to participating in a scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe a powerful opioid medication in order to boost its sales, U.S. prosecutors said on...
Judge Blocks New York from Enforcing Opioid Surcharge on Companies
Dec 21 2018 // A Manhattan federal judge blocked New York state from enforcing a recently enacted law that aimed to collect $600 million from drug manufacturers and distributors to defray the costs of combating the opioid addiction...
Big Pharma Resuming U.S. Price Hikes in January After Pause: Reuters Report
Dec 21 2018 // Novartis AG and Bayer AG are among nearly 30 drugmakers that have taken steps to raise the U.S. prices of their medicines in January, ending a self-declared halt to increases made by a pharma industry under pressure from...
Cigna Completes $54 Billion Acquisition of Express Scripts
Dec 21 2018 // Cigna Corp. on Thursday closed its $54-billion deal to buy Express Scripts Holding Co., creating one of the biggest providers of pharmacy benefits and insurance plans in the United States, a combination it says will help...
Reuters Special Report: J&J Knew About Asbestos in Baby Powder for Decades
Dec 17 2018 // Darlene Coker knew she was dying. She just wanted to know why. She knew that her cancer, mesothelioma, arose in the delicate membrane surrounding her lungs and other organs. She knew it was as rare as it was deadly, a...
Missouri’s Gov. Parson Pushing for Prescription Monitoring Bill
Dec 7 2018 // The long-futile effort seeking a statewide prescription drug monitoring program in Missouri now has a prominent advocate — Gov. Mike Parson. The Republican governor met Wednesday with St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson,...
Troubled Opioid Seller Insys Looks to Cannabis to Save Itself
Dec 4 2018 // Sitting in a Boston courtroom in a dark, pinstriped suit, the former top sales executive at Insys Therapeutics Inc., Alex Burlakoff, listened as federal prosecutors read out crimes he and the company had allegedly...
Mass. Pot Shops May Be Open, but Workers Can Still Be Fired Over Weed
Nov 26 2018 // The long-awaited opening of the first recreational marijuana stores in Massachusetts was cheered by cannabis enthusiasts and entrepreneurs, but it doesn’t change the reality that workers can be fired or face...
Ending Major Threat of Drug-Resistant Deadly Superbugs for $2 Per Person
Nov 8 2018 // Halting the rise of deadly drug-resistant “superbug” infections that kill millions around the world could cost just $2 per person a year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on...
Opioid Prescriptions Drop 32% in Wisconsin over Last 3 Years
Nov 1 2018 // A new state report shows doctors have been prescribing fewer opioids over the last three years. The report from the state Controlled Substances Board shows opioid prescriptions have decreased 32 percent over the last three...
U.S. Making Some Progress Against Opioid Epidemic, Says Health Chief
Oct 25 2018 // The number of U.S. drug overdose deaths has begun to level off after years of relentless increases driven by the opioid epidemic, health secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday, cautioning it’s too soon to declare...
Opioid Memorial in Houston as Part of Nationwide Tour
Oct 23 2018 // The National Safety Council on Monday made Houston the sixth stop on a nationwide tour of its exhibit, Prescribed to Death: A Memorial to the Victims of the Opioid Crisis, by unveiling the display inside the George R....
New York Is Considering Blocking Parts of $68B CVS, Aetna Merger
Oct 19 2018 // New York state officials are considering blocking parts of the $68 billion merger of drugstore store chain CVS Health Corp. and Aetna Inc., jeopardizing billions of dollars in insurance premiums for Aetna. CVS and Aetna...
NTSB: Texas Driver’s Drug Use Led to Deadly Church Bus Crash
Oct 19 2018 // A motorist’s use of marijuana and a sedative led to a collision with a church bus that killed 13 people on the bus, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report released on Oct. 16. According to the...
New Hampshire Insurance Company Trains Workers on Overdose Reversal Drug
Oct 18 2018 // Employees at one of New Hampshire’s community mental health centers are getting trained to administer overdose reversal drugs. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care on Friday held a training session for employees at Riverbend...
National Safety Board Calls for Standards for Drugged Driving Tests
Oct 18 2018 // U.S. transportation safety officials are sounding the alarm on drug-impaired driving, calling for state and federal regulators to do more to tackle the growing problem as states grapple with prescription drug abuse and...
