All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Apr 11 2019 // Several states are probing pharmacy-benefit managers’ business practices in government-sponsored health programs, adding to the scrutiny the middlemen face in Washington for their role in the cost of drugs.At least...
Apr 9 2019 // Two U.S. senators have asked the inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department to investigate a practice by pharmacy-benefit managers known as spread pricing, as part of a wider inquiry by lawmakers into...
Apr 9 2019 // Robin Feldman is a law professor at the University of California Hastings with a particular expertise in antitrust and patent issues. She is also one of those professors who are unusually good at explaining complex issues...
Apr 8 2019 // A physician ally of Purdue Pharma LP whose views helped drive the explosive growth in the use of addictive pain relievers for common aches and pains in the United States has agreed to testify against the OxyContin maker...
Apr 7 2019 // An Arkansas judge has rejected a request to dismiss the state’s lawsuit against three drugmakers that alleges they made false marketing claims about the benefits and risks of opioids, contributing to an increase in...
Apr 5 2019 // A U.S. prosecutor portrayed Insys Therapeutics Inc. founder John Kapoor and other former executives as greedy and heartless during closing arguments in their racketeering trial over the promotion of the opioid painkiller...
Apr 5 2019 // The state of Oklahoma narrowed its case against drug makers including Johnson & Johnson, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Allergan Plc, dropping fraud and other allegations while pressing ahead with a...
Apr 4 2019 // Florida’s Office of Drug Control will be re-established in the governor’s office and a state task force on drug abuse will be set up to provide a unified vision for battling the state’s opioid epidemic,...
Apr 1 2019 // The marijuana industry is an opportunity for insurers as more states have legalized the drug. But there are still risks in play that could limit wider carrier participation, A.M. Best said in a new report, “Cannabis:...
Mar 29 2019 // Vermont filed a lawsuit against two pharmaceutical distributors, accusing them of selling ever-increasing amounts of prescription opioids in the state while failing to effectively monitor and control the sales and...
Mar 29 2019 // The billionaire owners of Purdue Pharma LP were sued by New York state for allegedly triggering a U.S. addiction epidemic with their marketing of the Oxycontin painkiller, just two days after the company agreed to pay $270...
Mar 27 2019 // U.S. regulators plan to revamp rules governing how medicines are manufactured, in an effort to ensure the safety of the nation’s drug supply as recalls of contaminated imports from developing countries...
Mar 26 2019 // U.S. President Donald Trump is willing to work with congressional Democrats to lower drug prices for Americans and on infrastructure funding, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said on Tuesday.Conway said the Trump...
Mar 26 2019 // Bayer AG and Johnson & Johnson have agreed to settle more than 25,000 U.S. lawsuits alleging that their blockbuster blood thinner Xarelto caused unstoppable and in some cases fatal bleeding for a total of $775 million,...
Mar 25 2019 // Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear said on Thursday he had launched an investigation into allegations that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) had overcharged state health insurance programs for drugs and discriminated...
Mar 22 2019 // Medicines proven to treat opioid addiction remain vastly underused in the U.S., the nation’s top medical advisers said Wednesday.Only a fraction of the estimated 2 million people addicted to opioids are getting the...
Mar 20 2019 // Since California implemented its workers’ compensation formulary last year, an increasing share of drugs prescribed to injured workers are either “Exempt” from prospective utilization review or “Not...
Mar 20 2019 // Ohio is suing a company that managed prescription benefits for the state Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, seeking to recover nearly $16 million in alleged overcharges for the fund for injured workers.Attorney General...
Mar 15 2019 // The Oklahoma Supreme Court has rejected a request by drugmakers to immediately postpone the start of what is expected to be the first state trial in lawsuits accusing the companies of fueling an opioid epidemic.The court...
Mar 14 2019 // Washington is the latest state to sue major distributors of opioids, saying the companies made billions of dollars while ignoring signs of a growing crisis fueled by addiction to the drugs. Attorney General Bob Ferguson...