Latest Drugs Headlines
All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.
‘Scum of the Earth’: Drug Victims Face Purdue Pharma Owners
Mar 14 2022 // Angry, defiant and sometimes tearful, more than two dozen Americans whose lives were upended by the opioid crisis finally had their long-awaited chance Thursday to confront in court some members of the family they blame...
Supreme Court Asked to Resolve Federal Drug Law v. State Medical Marijuana Laws Debate
Mar 7 2022 // The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to address whether the federal drug law that criminalizes possession of marijuana invalidates state orders requiring employers and their workers’ compensation insurers to pay for...
‘Injections, Injections, Injections’: Troubling Questions Follow Closure of Sprawling Pain Clinic Chain
Mar 2 2022 // HANFORD, Calif. — On May 13 of last year, the cellphones of thousands of California residents undergoing treatment for chronic pain lit up with a terse text message: “Due to unforeseen circumstances, Lags Medical...
Supreme Court Asked to Resolve Federal Drug Law v. State Medical Marijuana Laws Debate
Feb 28 2022 // The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to address whether federal drug law that criminalizes possession of marijuana invalidates state orders requiring employers and their workers’ compensation insurers to pay for...
Drug Distributors, J&J Agree to Finalize $26 Billion Opioid Settlement
Feb 25 2022 // The three largest U.S. drug distributors and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson have agreed to finalize a proposed $26 billion settlement resolving claims by states and local governments that they helped fuel the U.S. opioid...
CDC Proposes Changes in Guidance to Doctors on Opioid Prescriptions
Feb 16 2022 // The nation’s top public health agency has proposed changing — and in some instances, softening — guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone and other opioid painkillers. The Centers for Disease Control and...
Bipartisan Report Calls for New Strategy, Cabinet Post to Fight Opioid Epidemic
Feb 9 2022 // The U.S. needs a nimble, multipronged strategy and Cabinet-level leadership to counter its festering overdose epidemic, a bipartisan congressional commission advises. With vastly powerful synthetic drugs like fentanyl...
Massachusetts Senate Weighs Bill to Lower Prescription Drug Prices for Patients
Feb 9 2022 // A bill aimed at addressing the increasing costs of prescription drugs is scheduled to come up for a vote in the Massachusetts Senate this week. The legislation would establish a process for identifying drug price...
About 100 Catalytic Converters Discovered in Louisiana Raid
Feb 7 2022 // Police seized about 100 catalytic converters and arrested two people during a raid at a Baton Rouge home. Officers executing a search warrant Thursday evening arrested a 39-year-old man and a 34-year-old woman after...
Teva to Pay $420M to Settle Shareholder Suit Over Generic Drug Pricing
Jan 19 2022 // Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. has agreed to pay $420 million to settle shareholder litigation alleging the company hid an anti-competitive scheme to fix the price of generic drugs. The settlement was disclosed on...
Insurer Need Not Defend Drug Chain in Opioid Suits Claiming Economic, Not Personal, Injury
Jan 11 2022 // In the latest turn in litigation over the opioid crisis, a state’s high court has found an insurer does not need to pay defense costs under a commercial general liability policy for a pharmacy chain facing public...
French Court Allows Class Action Against Sanofi Over Its Epilepsy Drug Depakine
Jan 5 2022 // A French court ruled that families of children who suffered side effects from the epilepsy medicine Depakine can join in a class-action lawsuit against drugmaker Sanofi. The company should have warned of the risk of birth...
Biden’s Proposed Inflation Cap on Drug Prices Includes Private Insurance Plans
Nov 22 2021 // Workers and families with private health insurance would reap savings on prescription drugs from a little-noticed provision in President Joe Biden’s sweeping social agenda bill. It’s meant to break the cycle of...
Washington State Blames Drug Distributors in $95 Billion Opioid Trial
Nov 16 2021 // Washington state’s attorney general on Monday argued in court that three large drug distributors’ excessive shipments of pain pills helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic, calling it the “worst man-made...
Biden Administration Unveils Steps to Lower Drug Prices
Sep 9 2021 // President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday unveiled its promised initiative aimed at cutting drug prices, saying it will test new ways to reduce such costs for the Medicare health insurance program including...
Drug Distributors Signal $26B Opioid Settlement with States to Proceed
Sep 7 2021 // Three large U.S. drug distributors and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson will proceed with a proposed $26 billion settlement resolving claims that they fueled the opioid epidemic after “enough” states joined in,...
Inmates at Arkansas Jail Unaware They Were Given Anti-Parasite Drug to Treat COVID-19
Sep 3 2021 // inmates at a northwest Arkansas jail said they weren’t told a medication they were given to treat COVID-19 was actually an anti-parasite drug that federal health officials have warned should not be used to treat the...
Pass Measures to Lower Prescription Drug Prices, Biden Urges Congress
Aug 13 2021 // President Joe Biden on Thursday called on U.S. lawmakers to enact legislation aimed at lowering drug prices, including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and imposing penalties on drugmakers that hike prices faster...
Texas Doctor Convicted of Workers’ Comp Fraud, Drug Crimes
Jul 30 2021 // A North Texas doctor will pay $376,368 in restitution after pleading guilty to mail fraud conspiracy in federal court, the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation reported. Clinton Battle...
In Opioid Trial Closing, West Virginia Blames Drug Distributors. Distributors Blame Doctors.
Jul 28 2021 // CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Lawyers for a West Virginia city and county hard hit by the opioid crisis began wrapping up their case in a $2.5 billion trial on Tuesday arguing major drug distributors flooded the region with the...
