Latest Drugs Headlines
All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Drug Ads on TV Would Show Prices Under Trump Administration Proposal
Oct 16 2018 // The U.S. government, in an effort to increase pressure on drugmakers to lower costs for U.S. consumers, said on Monday it will propose requiring companies to include the price of their prescription medicines in television...
Tennessee Drug Overdose Deaths Rise Again in 2017
Oct 15 2018 // The number of Tennessee residents who died of drug overdoses has risen more than 8 percent, setting another record in 2017. The state Health Department said 1,776 Tennesseans died from overdoses last year, the most since...
U.S. Clears Way for CVS Acquisition of Aetna That Promises Consumer Cost Savings
Oct 11 2018 // Pharmacy chain CVS Health Corp. won U.S. antitrust approval for its $69 billion acquisition of health insurer Aetna Inc., the Justice Department said on Wednesday, paving the way for a combination with potential to cut...
Marijuana Legalization Advocates Seek Foothold in Midwest States
Oct 10 2018 // Backers of broad marijuana legalization are looking to break through a geographic barrier in November and get their first foothold in the Midwest after a string of election victories in Northeastern and Western...
Liability Test Case Against Opioid Makers Allowed to Move Forward
Oct 8 2018 // A lawsuit seeking to hold drugmakers and distributors responsible for a nationwide opioid epidemic should be allowed to move forward, a federal magistrate said in a preliminary ruling that may increase the likelihood of a...
New York DFS Issues Final Reg Requiring Insurers to Include Formulary Exception
Oct 1 2018 // The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) is taking new actions to address the opioid crisis in New York State. DFS issued a final regulation requiring insurers to include a formulary exception process for...
Fatal Drug Overdoses in Ohio Increase to Record Number
Sep 26 2018 // Fatal drug overdoses increased to a record 4,854 last year in Ohio, a 20 percent rise compared with the previous year, according to information reported to the state. Data on unintentional drug deaths provided to the Ohio...
Workers Overdose On the Job and Employers Struggle to Respond
Sep 26 2018 // PORTLAND, Ore. — Jimmy Sullivan prepared for his job as a bricklayer the same way every morning for years: injecting a shot of heroin before leaving his car. The first time he overdosed on the job, in 2013 at a Virginia...
Tennessee Drug Overdose Deaths Rise Again in 2017
Sep 26 2018 // The number of Tennessee residents who died of drug overdoses has risen more than 8 percent, setting another record in 2017. The state Health Department said 1,776 Tennesseans died from overdoses last year, the most since...
Cigna Says Express Scripts Acquisition Passes Antitrust Review
Sep 17 2018 // Health insurer Cigna Corp.’s $52 billion acquisition of pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts Holding Co. has passed U.S. antitrust scrutiny, the companies said on Monday, allowing them to proceed with a...
Oregon Sues OxyContin Manufacturer Claiming it Minimized Risks
Sep 17 2018 // Oregon’s attorney general has sued the pharmaceutical company that makes OxyContin, saying it misrepresented the risks and benefits of the drug and lied to a state regulatory agency to maximize profits. A spokesman...
Purdue Includes Free Opioid Treatment Drugs in Settlement Offer
Sep 14 2018 // The company that created OxyContin is offering free doses of an opioid-abuse treatment as part of its offer to resolve more than 1,000 lawsuits accusing the drugmaker of helping fuel the opioid crisis, according to people...
Vermont Sues Opioid Drugmaker Over Marketing Practices
Sep 7 2018 // Vermont on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against drugmaker Purdue over what it called deceptive marketing of OxyContin and other prescription opioid painkillers that the attorney general says helped lead to the drug crisis in...
Labor Secretary: Cost Savings in California Workers’ Comp $1.3B Annually
Sep 6 2018 // Cost savings in the California worker’s compensation system from reforms made five years ago are far more massive than projected, according to David Lanier, secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development...
West Virginia Drug Overdose Deaths Reached Record High in 2017
Sep 6 2018 // New West Virginia health information shows drug overdose deaths have increased to more than 1,000 in a one-year period for the first time. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the West Virginia Health Statistics...
California Court Rules Workers’ Comp Law Provides Exclusive Remedy in Utilization Review Case
Sep 3 2018 // The California Supreme Court issued an opinion in late August that utilization review physicians cannot be sued for malpractice, upholding established law that the workers’ comp system provides injured employees an...
South Carolina Supreme Court Appoints Judge to Manage Opioid Lawsuits
Aug 27 2018 // South Carolina’s high court has appointed a single judge to handle any lawsuits related to opioids in the state system. On Thursday, the state Supreme Court assigned Circuit Court Judge Perry Gravely to the task....
California High Court: Workers’ Comp Law Provides Exclusive Remedy in Utilization Review Case
Aug 23 2018 // The California Supreme Court issued an opinion today that utilization review physicians cannot be sued for malpractice, upholding established law that the workers’ comp system provides injured employees an exclusive...
Brand Name Drug Maker Not Liable for Injuries from Generic Version: Court
Aug 23 2018 // A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday tossed a $3 million verdict against GlaxoSmithKline over the suicide of an attorney who took a generic version of the company’s antidepressant Paxil, finding the company could not be...
Study Looks at Polypharmacy Claims in California Workers’ Comp
Aug 17 2018 // A study from the California Workers’ Compensation Institute shows the likelihood that indemnity was paid on a workers’ comp claim increased with the number of concurrent prescriptions the injured worker was...
