Latest Drugs Headlines
All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Executive Frets ACA Impact on California Workers’ Comp
Aug 21 2013 // Like many, Steve Festa, with Reno, Nev.-based EMPLOYERS, has some serious concerns about just how the Affordable Care Act will affect the insurance industry. And Festa’s biggest concern is how this sweeping change in...
Pfizer to Pay $1.8 Million in Prempro Punitive Damages
Aug 8 2013 // Pfizer Inc. must pay about $1.8 million in punitive damages to a Connecticut woman who developed breast cancer after taking the company’s Prempro menopause drug, a judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Janet Bond...
Relatives Of Montana Man Sue Hospital Over Opiate Patch Death
Jul 29 2013 // Relatives of a Montana man who died of a drug overdose following surgery at a hospital in Cody, Wyo., have filed a federal lawsuit claiming negligence by the hospital and medical personnel who gave him an opiate patch. The...
Groups Attack Watchdog Effort to Raise Medical Malpractice Bar in California
Jul 26 2013 // Under a measure being pursued for next year’s ballot by Consumer Watchdog California voters will have the opportunity to boost the cap on medical negligence lawsuits, but opponents of the measure on Friday said doing...
Safety Board Recommends ‘Talking Vehicles’ Technology in New Models
Jul 25 2013 // The government should set performance standards for new safety technology that allows cars and trucks to talk to each other and then require the technology be installed in all new vehicles, a federal accident investigation...
Arkansas Works to Reduce Prescription Drug Abuse
Jul 23 2013 // Prescription drug overdoses account for about one death per day in Arkansas and state officials are working with educators, health providers and law enforcement to bring down abuse rates. Alcohol remains the most commonly...
New Jersey Report Links Corrupt Doctors to Drug Abuse
Jul 12 2013 // The buzz came mostly by word-of-mouth but also from flyers circulated among New Jersey’s homeless Medicaid recipients and drug addicts. It told them where to get pain pills — and fast — prescribed by...
Drugmakers Work on Safer Painkillers as Opioid Abuse Epidemic Rages
Jul 2 2013 // Backed by a U.S. campaign to slow abuse of prescription painkillers, drugmakers are devising new forms of the medicines that don’t lead to misuse and new products that treat dependency in a bid to change the face of...
Kentucky to Study Laws Meant to Curb Prescription Drug Abuse
Jun 26 2013 // Kentucky officials will start a yearlong study next month to determine the effects of controversial new laws designed to curb prescription pill abuse. The Courier-Journal reported that the Cabinet for Health and Family...
Supreme Court Extends Ban on Suits Against Generic Drugs
Jun 25 2013 // The U.S. Supreme Court reinforced its bar on lawsuits by patients against generic-drug makers, overturning a $21 million award to a woman who suffered debilitating injuries after taking a generic painkiller. The justices,...
Drug Makers Can Be Sued for ‘Pay for Delay’: Supreme Court
Jun 18 2013 // Drugmakers can be sued for paying rivals to delay low-cost versions of popular medicines, the U.S. Supreme Court said in a decision that rewrites the rules governing the release of generic drugs. The 5-3 ruling is largely...
Southeast States Battle Prescription Drug Abuse
Jun 17 2013 // Deaths from prescription drug overdoses jumped 360 percent in the last decade in the Appalachian region, according to the Center for Clinical and Translation Science. As a result of this epidemic, states in the Southeast...
Massachusetts Health Insurer Ends Coverage of Compounded Drugs
Jun 14 2013 // The second largest health insurer in Massachusetts has announced that it will no longer cover specialty medications known as compounded drugs, months after a deadly nationwide meningitis outbreak was traced to a...
Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Utah Police Agency
Jun 14 2013 // The family of a young woman fatally shot by West Valley City police has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the officers involved and the former police chief. Danielle Willard’s parents filed the lawsuit Wednesday...
Tennessee Tightens Regulations on Compounding Pharmacies
Jun 14 2013 // The Tennessee Board of Pharmacy said it has adopted new regulations for compounding pharmacies licensed by the state following recent outbreaks of illnesses associated with tainted medicines created at these specialty...
Iowa Pharmacist ‘Vehemently Denies’ Fraud Charges
Jun 13 2013 // An Iowa City pharmacist will contest federal criminal charges alleging that he improperly filed insurance claims for expensive drugs needed to treat patients with hemophilia, his attorney said. Michael F. Stein made an...
Arizona Man Seeks $500,000 Over Dismissed DUI Case
Jun 12 2013 // A man is seeking $500,000 from an Arizona city for his arrest on a drunken driving charge even though a breath-alcohol test showed he hadn’t consumed any alcohol. Jessie Thornton was cited in a Dec. 7 traffic stop in...
Alabama Drivers Part of National Alcohol, Drug Test
Jun 12 2013 // Drivers in St. Clair and Bibb counties who were stopped at roadblocks in the area over last weekend were asked to give anonymous breath, saliva and blood samples as part of a national study, authorities said Monday. Giving...
Walgreen Agrees to Record $80M Settlement Over Distribution of Painkillers
Jun 12 2013 // Walgreen Co., the largest U.S. drugstore chain, has agreed to pay $80 million in civil penalties to resolve allegations that it violated federal rules governing the distribution of prescription painkillers. The U.S. Drug...
Drug Maker to Pay $4M Oxycontin Settlement in Kentucky County Claim: Report
Jun 10 2013 // An eastern Kentucky official has announced a settlement in a lawsuit over the drug OxyContin. The Appalachian News-Express cited a statement from Pike Judge-Executive Wayne T. Rutherford in reporting that drug maker Purdue...
