Latest Drugs Headlines
All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Shareholder Activists Press Drug Firms on Business Risks of Opioid Crisis
Oct 31 2017 // U.S. shareholder activists are addressing a soaring death toll from opioid drug abuse, asking companies that make and distribute the painkillers to review the risks their businesses could face from their role in the...
California Workers’ Comp Report Shows Prevalence of Opioids in Set-Asides
Oct 30 2017 // A new report shows that nearly 70 percent of federally mandated and approved California Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside settlements for injured workers require funding for decades of opioid use, often at...
Ohio County Sues Drugmakers Over Opioid Surge
Oct 30 2017 // County officials in Ohio’s Cuyahoga County are suing several large prescription drug companies saying they intentionally misled the public about the dangers of opioids. The lawsuit filed by Cuyahoga County says the...
Pharmacist in Deadly Meningitis Outbreak Cleared of Murder
Oct 30 2017 // A pharmacist at a facility whose tainted drugs sparked a nationwide meningitis outbreak that killed 76 people was cleared Wednesday of murder but was convicted of mail fraud and racketeering. Jurors said prosecutors failed...
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...
