Latest Drugs Headlines

All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Feds Grant $5.9M to West Virginia for Drug Addiction Fight

May 15 2017 // West Virginia will receive $5.9 million from the federal government to help fight drug addiction.U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins and Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin announced the grant from the U.S. Department of Health...

Jury Clears J&J, Bayer of Liability in First Xarelto Product Liability Trial

May 5 2017 // Johnson & Johnson and Bayer AG aren’t responsible for a Xarelto user’s internal bleeding, a jury found in the first trial over the blood-thinning drug.J&J and Bayer didn’t mislead a Louisiana man...

California DWC Posts Interim Report on Workers’ Comp Drug Formulary

May 1 2017 // California’s Division of Workers’ Compensation has posted the second interim status report on its efforts to promulgate regulations for an evidence-based workers’ compensation drug formulary.The...

Feds Grant $5.9M to West Virginia in Drug Addiction Fight

May 1 2017 // West Virginia will receive $5.9 million from the federal government to help fight drug addiction.U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins and Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin announced the grant Thursday from the U.S. Department...

Workers’ Comp Programs Assist Workers in Addiction Fight

May 1 2017 // Meet a victim of the nation’s opioid addiction scourge: The American worker.A number of U.S. states are taking steps through their worker’s compensation systems to stem the overprescribing of the powerful...

Feds Grant $5.9M to West Virginia for Drug Addiction Fight

Apr 24 2017 // West Virginia will receive $5.9 million from the federal government to help fight drug addiction.U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins and Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin announced the grant Thursday from the U.S. Department...

States to Get $485 Million for Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs

Apr 24 2017 // The federal government will provide states nearly half a billion dollars for prevention and treatment programs aimed at confronting the opioid epidemic, which Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price described last...

French Regulator Links Sanofi Epilepsy Drug to Birth Defects

Apr 21 2017 // Up to 4,100 children in France suffered major malformations in the womb after their mothers took a treatment against epilepsy and bipolar disorders known as valproate between 1967 and 2016, France’s drug regulator...

West Virginia Overdose Deaths Up 15% in 2016

Apr 17 2017 // The number of reported overdose deaths that occurred last year in West Virginia has continued to rise.Citing data released March 22, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that at least 844 people died in the state of drug...

New Study Backs Spinal Manipulation Therapy for Low Back Pain

Apr 13 2017 // A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) adds to a growing body of recent research supporting the use of spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) as a first line treatment for acute low back...

West Virginia to Spend Opioid Lawsuit Funds on Addiction Treatment Facilities

Apr 13 2017 // With more than 30,000 West Virginians already in drug treatment, lawmakers struggling with the state’s addiction crisis have voted to spend $24 million from recent court settlements with opioid distributors to...

Identifying Surgical Patients at Risk of Becoming Long-Term Opioid Users

Apr 12 2017 // Having surgery always comes with risks. But a new study suggests a new one to add to the usual list: the risk of becoming a long-term opioid user.About six percent of people who hadn’t been taking opioids before...

Ohio Physician Pleads Guilty to Role in Pill Mill

Apr 11 2017 // Margaret Temponeras, 52, of Portsmouth, Ohio, has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, which she did through a pain clinic and dispensary, according to the U.S....

Georgia Jury Awards $20.5M in Civil Suit Against Drug Maker

Apr 10 2017 // A jury in central Georgia has awarded $20.5 million in damages to a retired teacher in her civil lawsuit against a drug company. The Telegraph of Macon reports Ann Pope sued Akorn Inc. in Houston County State Court, saying...

Trump’s FDA Chief Cites Opioid Epidemic As Top Priority

Apr 7 2017 // Opioid painkillers that have led to thousands of deaths and new drug addicts should be the highest priority of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Scott Gottlieb, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the...

Arkansas Health Plan Panel Recommends Limits on Coverage for Opioids

Apr 6 2017 // An Arkansas health panel has recommended limiting coverage of opioid prescriptions in health plans that cover tens of thousands of state employees and teachers.The recommendations, which are aimed at curbing drug...

Delaware Bill Aimed at Substance Abuse Insurance Coverage

Apr 6 2017 // House lawmakers have unanimously approved legislation aimed at ensuring that people struggling with drug addiction get the help they need.Supporters of the bill say denial of insurance coverage for substance abuse...

West Virginia One Step Closer to Legalizing Medical Marijuana

Apr 6 2017 // West Virginia’s House voted Tuesday to legalize doctor-prescribed marijuana to treat certain medical conditions following Senate passage of a similar measure last week.The bills approved 76-24 by the House and 28-6...

California Workers Comp Medical Review Volume Hit a Record in 2016

Apr 3 2017 // The California workers’ compensation independent medical review process used to resolve medical disputes found that in 2016 IMR physicians once again upheld about 90 percent of utilization review (UR)...

West Virginia House Passes Bill to Aid Opioid Addiction Treatment Facilities

Mar 31 2017 // The number of beds available at state-run substance abuse treatment facilities would increase in drug-ravaged West Virginia under a bill passed Wednesday by the House.The bill passed on a 99-0 vote. It now moves to the...