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National Safety Council: Opioid Overdose Deaths Now Exceed Traffic Fatalities
For the first time in U.S. history, the risk of dying from an opioid overdose is greater than that of being killed in a traffic accident. Opioids also exceed slip and fall incidents, drowning, and fire as causes of unintentional deaths. Furthermore, only 13 states (including the District of Columbia) are making any progress in dealing with the crisis.
“Advocating for Addiction”: Purdue Pushed Doctors to Prescribe Opioids – and More
Opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma lost a legal battle in Tennessee recently when the state attorney general's office unsealed records of a lawsuit filed this past May. Those records, which lawyers for the drugmaker fought to keep secret, reveal that Purdue engaged in a wide variety of deceptive and duplicitous actions in order to increase sales of OxyContin (oxycodone).
Defendants in Opioid Litigation Must Produce Two Decades of Records, Court Rules
In a major victory for plaintiffs in the National Prescription Opiate Litigation (MDL #2804) this past week, the court ordered that defendants must provide records dating back to 1995.
Federal Judge Puts DEA On Notice: Turn Over Sales Records on Opioid Prescriptions
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster has ordered the Drug Enforcement Administration to provide data on opioid prescription sales throughout the nation. This order comes as part of the ongoing multidistrict litigation against pharmaceutical companies that allegedly played a major role in the country's opioid addiction crisis.
At One Time, Opioid-Based Analgesics Were Used Sparingly. Here's What Happened
The medical community has been dealing with addiction to opioid-based pain medication for over 150 years. It is not a new issue. It has only been in recent years that the rate of addiction has reached crisis proportions. In 2016 alone, opioid overdose claimed 42,000 lives – more than the number of those lost to breast cancer.
New Study Indicates That Opioids Are No Better Than Other Pain Meds
Despite evidence demonstrating that opioid-based prescriptions are no more effective in controlling pain than their non-opioid counterparts, doctors are protesting a new federal Medicare rule currently under consideration that would allow pharmacists to limit patient access to such medications.
Department of Justice Announces It Will Side With Plaintiffs in Opioid Lawsuit – But Will It, Really?
Earlier this week, the current U.S. Attorney General Jefferson Sessions announced that the Department of Justice intends to file a “statement of interest” in filing its own lawsuit against opioid manufacturers. In a media statement, Sessions alleged that opioid manufacturers and distributors had used “false, deceptive, and unfair marketing” in order to market their products.
Between Antipsychotics and Opioids, Newborn Infants Are Suffering
While a 2016 study found that antipsychotic medications taken during pregnancy do not necessarily lead to birth defects, a new study by the same researcher has discovered that expectant mothers who take opioid painkillers on top of antipsychotic prescription drugs run a moderate to high risk of giving birth to babies going through withdrawal.
Insurance Company Wades Into the Fray, Suing a Drug Manufacturer Over Opioid Reimbursements
Last week, Anthem Blue Cross Life & Health Insurance Company filed a lawsuit against Insys Therapeutics Inc. over what the plaintiff's counsel describes as a “creative, fraudulent and illegal” scheme in which the drug manufacturer obtained millions of dollars in improper reimbursements for the opioid prescription medication, Subsys. This comes in the wake of action by the U.S.
Shades of Big Tobacco: How Opioid Manufacturers Hooked an Entire Generation
Just before President Jimmy Carter left office in January of 1980, a short letter to the editor appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. Signed by Jane Porter and Dr. Hershel Jick of Boston University Medical Center, the last sentence of that letter contained what appeared to be reassurance: “We conclude that despite widespread use of narcotic drugs in hospitals, the development of addiction is rare in medical patients with no history of addiction.”