Latest Drugs Headlines
All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.
What CVS-Aetna Deal Could Mean for Pharmacy Benefit Managers
Oct 30 2017 // If Aetna Inc. is eventually swallowed by CVS Health Corp., an important part of the health-care business will be changed — perhaps for good. For years, pharmacy benefits were largely carved out from the rest of a...
What Trump Declaring Opioid Crisis a Public Health Emergency Means
Oct 27 2017 // 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...
Experts: Georgia Getting Hit Hard by Opioid Crisis
Oct 27 2017 // The nation’s deepening opioid epidemic is hitting Georgia harder than most states, experts say. That’s one of the messages that came out of a recent conference at the University of Georgia. Some of the highest...
Opioid Abuse Has Leveled Off But Isn’t Declining: ASA Analysis
Oct 23 2017 // While the upswing in opioid abuse has leveled off, the level does not appear to be declining and remains disturbingly high, according to an analysis of national data presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists...
California Workers’ Comp Institute Recaps Year in Legislation
Oct 19 2017 // The California Workers’ Compensation Institute this week released a report on a list of bills that will affect the workers’ comp system. The bills were recently signed into law at the end of the Legislative...
Drug Pricing Transparency Law Signed by California Governor
Oct 10 2017 // California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed state legislation requiring drug companies to report certain price hikes for prescription medicines in a move that could set a model for other states to follow. The law, which aims to...
Washington and Seattle Become Latest Governments to Sue Opioid Makers
Oct 3 2017 // Washington state and the city of Seattle on Thursday joined more than two dozen other government entities across the country suing to hold opioid makers accountable for an addiction crisis that has claimed thousands of...
Drugs in Workplace a Danger to Workers and Drag on Productivity
Sep 22 2017 // At Philip Tulkoff’s food-processing plant in Baltimore, machines grind tough horseradish roots into puree. “If you put your arm in the wrong place,” the owner says, “and you’re not paying...
Employers Expect Above-Average Rise in Cost of Employee Benefits in 2018: Mercer Survey
Sep 18 2017 // Employers expect that their average cost per-employee for health benefits will rise by 4.3 percent in 2018, which is above the average increase of 3 percent of the past five years. Early responses from Mercer’s...
Study: Opioids in California Comp Claims Involving Mental Health
Sep 18 2017 // A new study shows the prevalence of opioids in workers’ compensation claims involving mental health. The study by the California Workers’ Compensation Institute tracks changes in the prevalence, volume and...
New Mexico Sues 8 Drug Manufacturers, Distributors over Opioid Epidemic
Sep 11 2017 // New Mexico has sued eight opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors, becoming the latest state or local government to file a lawsuit seeking to hold corporations accountable for a national drug addiction...
2 Kentucky Counties to Sue Drug Companies Over Opioid Epidemic
Aug 31 2017 // Officials in two Kentucky counties have voted to hire attorneys to file lawsuits against wholesale drug distributors to help pay for the costs of combating the opioid epidemic. The Kentucky Enquirer reports Boone and...
Study Keys on Opioids in California Comp Claims Involving Mental Health
Aug 29 2017 // A new study shows the prevalence of opioids in workers’ compensation claims involving mental health. The study by the California Workers’ Compensation Institute tracks changes in the prevalence, volume and...
West Virginia to Use $22M from Drug Distributor Suit for Addiction Treatment
Aug 24 2017 // West Virginia’s Department of Health and Human Resources says it will use $22 million in settlement money from drug distributors to help address the addiction epidemic in the state. Legislation passed this year...
Louisville Sues Drug Distributors Over Kentucky Opioid Epidemic
Aug 23 2017 // Officials in Kentucky’s largest city have filed suit in federal court against opioid distributors, accusing them of contributing to the drug epidemic in the state. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced the lawsuit...
Illinois Attorney General Reaches $4.5M Settlement in Opioid Marketing Case
Aug 22 2017 // Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has reached a $4.5 million settlement with an Arizona-based pharmaceutical company that her office sued for deceptive marketing of an opioid drug meant for cancer patients. Madigan...
Two Plead Guilty to $25M New Jersey Prescription Drug Scheme
Aug 21 2017 // Two men have pleaded guilty to defrauding New Jersey and health insurers out of $25 million by submitting claims for unneeded prescriptions. Matthew Tedesco and Robert Bessey pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiracy to...
Third Jury Sides with J&J, Bayer Over Xarelto Drug Liability Claims
Aug 21 2017 // A federal jury has cleared Bayer AG and Johnson & Johnson of liability in the third case to go to trial out of thousands of lawsuits claiming the drugmakers’ blood thinner Xarelto led to severe internal...
Drug Company Deflects Blame in Lawsuit Over West Virginia Opioid Crisis
Aug 18 2017 // A West Virginia city’s lawsuit against a drug company has led to a dispute over which is at fault in the opioid epidemic. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported last week that one of the nation’s largest drug...
Florida Police: Tiger Woods Had Marijuana, Painkillers in System When Arrested for DUI
Aug 17 2017 // Tiger Woods had the active ingredient for marijuana, two painkillers and two sleep drugs in his system when he was arrested on a DUI charge earlier this year, a report released Tuesday by police said. Police in Jupiter,...
