Latest Drugs Headlines

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

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 thresholds...

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 finding...

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 M.D....

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...

What Drug Companies Have Paid to Settle Claims Over U.S. Opioid Crisis

Jul 22 2021 // State attorneys general on Wednesday unveiled a $26 billion settlement with the three largest U.S. drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson to resolve thousands of lawsuits by states and local governments over the...

States, Municipalities Have 30 Days to Weigh $26B Opioid Deal with Major Drug Firms

Jul 22 2021 // A group of state attorneys general unveiled on Wednesday a landmark $26 billion settlement with large drug companies for allegedly fueling the deadly nationwide opioid epidemic, but the deal still requires support from...

Oklahoma Lawmakers Urge Interim Study on Opioid Prescriptions

Jul 21 2021 // Three Oklahoma state representatives have requested an interim study to investigate clinical outcomes of patients with pain following policies resulting in rapid reductions in opioid prescribing.Rep. John Talley,...

States Expected to Announce Opioid Deal With Drug Distributors, J&J: Reuters

Jul 20 2021 // U.S. state attorneys general and lawyers for local governments are expected on Wednesday to unveil a landmark, $26 billion settlement resolving claims that the three largest U.S. drug distributors and drugmaker Johnson...

Drug Overdose Deaths Hit Record 93,000 During 2020 Pandemic

Jul 16 2021 // Overdose deaths soared to a record 93,000 last year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government reported Wednesday.That estimate far eclipses the high of about 72,000 drug overdose deaths reached the...

Missouri Lawsuit: Former Sheriff Stole Drugs, Assaulted Plaintiff

Jul 9 2021 // A woman has alleged in a civil rights lawsuit that a former northwest Missouri sheriff gave her drugs and sexually assaulted her.The St. Joseph News-Press reported that the claims involve former Harrison County Sheriff...