Latest Drugs Headlines
All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Facing Deceptive Opioid Marketing Suits, Mallinckrodt Files for Bankruptcy
Oct 12 2020 // Mallinckrodt Plc filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, saddled with lawsuits alleging it fueled the U.S. opioid epidemic and after it lost a court battle to avoid paying higher rebates to state Medicaid programs for...
Steep Drop in California Workers’ Comp IMRs in First Half of 2020
Oct 5 2020 // The number of independent medical reviews used to resolve California workers’ compensation medical disputes fell sharply in the first half of 2020 as the pandemic took a toll on the state’s economy with...
Texas Staffing Firm Sued for Disability Discrimination
Sep 24 2020 // Federal officials have sued a Houston-based staffing firm over allegations of workplace disability discrimination. Swift Technical Services LLC, doing business as Airswift, a Houston-based staffing firm focused on the oil...
Report Shows Steep Drop in California Workers’ Comp IMRs in 1st Half Year
Sep 18 2020 // The number of independent medical reviews used to resolve California workers’ compensation medical disputes fell sharply in the first half of 2020 as the pandemic took a toll on the state’s economy with...
Inside Big Pharma’s Stealth War on Drug Price Watchdog: Reuters Special Report
Sep 11 2020 // As evidence grew this spring that the drug remdesivir was helping COVID-19 patients, some Wall Street investors bet on analysts’ estimates that its maker, Gilead Sciences Inc., could charge up to $10,000 for the...
Declarations
Sep 7 2020 // ‘Canary in the Coal Mine’ “In many ways, Louisiana is the poster child for climate change, we are the canary in the coal mine.” — Gov. John Bel Edwards, speaking at a Coastal Protection and...
U.S. Charges Teva With Conspiring to Fix Generic Drugs Prices
Aug 26 2020 // The U.S. Justice Department charged Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. on Tuesday with conspiring with competitors to raise prices for generic drugs. The Justice Department has been investigating allegations the company...
Texas Pharmacy Marketer Charged in $60M Kickback Scheme
Aug 21 2020 // A Texas-based pharmacy marketer has been charged by federal in a conjunction to a scheme to collect more than $60 million in healthcare kickbacks. Vinson Woodlee, owner and president of Med Left LLC, has been charged with...
West Virginia AG Sues Walmart, CVS Over State Flooding of Opioids
Aug 21 2020 // West Virginia’s attorney general sued Walmart and drugstore chain CVS on Tuesday, saying they failed to monitor and report suspicious orders of prescription painkillers to their retail pharmacies in a state ravaged...
New York Regulator Issues Insurance Fraud Action Against Two Opioid Manufacturers
Aug 20 2020 // The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has filed charges and initiated administrative proceedings against Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and its subsidiaries, as well as Allergan PLC and its...
Drug Costs for COVID-19 Patients in U.S. Hospitals Drop But May Rise Again
Aug 20 2020 // Medication costs for COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the United States have dropped sharply since May, reflecting advances in treatment, shorter stays and use of cheaper generic drugs. But costs may rise again as...
States Seek $26.4 Billion From Drug Firms in Opioid Litigation – WSJ
Aug 19 2020 // U.S. states are seeking a combined $26.4 billion from three major drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson to settle opioid litigation against the companies, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people...
States Say OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma Owes $2.2 Trillion for Opioid Epidemic
Aug 18 2020 // U.S. states claimed they are owed $2.2 trillion to address harm from OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP’s alleged role in America’s opioid epidemic, accusing the drugmaker in new filings of pushing prescription...
Drugmakers Shielded from COVID Vaccine Liability But Funds for Injury Claims in Doubt
Aug 14 2020 // Americans who suffer adverse reactions to coronavirus vaccines that the U.S. is racing to develop will have a hard time getting compensated for injuries from the drugs. That’s because pandemic-related claims for...
U.S. Drug Regulator Vows Outside Review of Any COVID-19 Vaccines
Aug 11 2020 // The United States will need to have independent experts review COVID-19 vaccine candidates before approval, the country’s top drug regulator said on Friday, offering reassurance that his agency would not cut corners...
U.S. Eyes $13 Billion of Claims in Purdue Pharma Opioid Probes: Reuters
Aug 5 2020 // U.S. prosecutors are pursuing possible penalties of nearly $13 billion to resolve investigations of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma after uncovering evidence of criminal and civil misconduct stemming from the company’s...
Trump Signs Executive Orders to Lower Prescription Drug Prices
Jul 27 2020 // U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed four executive orders aimed at lowering the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs, as he faces an uphill re-election battle and criticism over his handling of the...
COVID-19 Treatment Remdesivir to Cost Private Insurers $3,120
Jul 6 2020 // The maker of a drug shown to shorten recovery time for severely ill COVID-19 patients says it will charge $2,340 for a typical treatment course for people covered by government health programs in the United States and...
Injured Workers Pharmacy Will Pay $11M to Settle Complaint By Mass. AG’s Office
Jul 6 2020 // A mail-order pharmacy that fought frequent court battles against workers’ compensation insurers will pay $11 million and change its business practices to settle a civil complaint by the Massachusetts attorney...
Texas Work Comp Division: Healthcare Providers Indicted for Drug Distribution, Fraud
Jul 2 2020 // Three Texas healthcare providers will face trial for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and mail fraud, according to the Texas Department of Insurance – Division of Workers’ Compensation. On June...
