Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Effort To Hold Someone Accountable For Devastating Opioid Crisis Is Ever Narrowing In On Drug Companies
The Washington Post: Opioid Lawsuits: As Lawyers Zero In On Drug Companies, A Reckoning May Be Coming
For two decades, as 200,000 opioid overdose deaths piled up across America, there was always someone else to blame. Families blamed drug companies. Drug companies blamed doctors. Everyone blamed the government. More than half the public continues to see drug addiction as a moral failing, blaming substance abusers themselves for the epidemic, at least in part, according to recent polling. But now the effort to hold someone to account for the worst drug crisis in U.S. history is narrowing to a few dozen drug companies whose day in court has come or will soon arrive. (Bernstein and Rowland, 7/17)
The Washington Post: Opioid Death Rates Soared In Communities Where Pain Pills Flowed
Death rates from opioids soared in the towns, cities and counties that were saturated with billions of prescription pain pills from 2006 through 2012, according to government death data and a previously undisclosed database of opioid shipments made public this week. The highest per capita death rates nationwide from opioids during those years were in rural communities in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia. In those seven years, those communities also were flooded with a disproportionate share of the 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pain pills from some of the country’s largest drug companies, an analysis by The Washington Post reveals. (Horwitz, Rich and Higham, 7/17)
The Wall Street Journal: New Clinic For Drug Users Opens Near Penn Station
In a nondescript Midtown building tucked between tourist hotels and a few short blocks from New York Penn Station is one of the oldest syringe-exchange programs in the city and one of the newest primary-care clinics for drug users and the homeless. Called the Ginny Shubert Center for Harm Reduction, the new facility, which celebrated its official launch Wednesday, is the latest multi-purpose medical center opened by Housing Works, a nonprofit social-services group best known for its thrift stores. (West, 7/17)
Nashville Tennessean: Partnership Aims To Decrease Infants Born Addicted To Opioids
Two Nashville-area companies announced a new partnership last week to provide clinical and wraparound services for expecting mothers struggling with opioid use disorders. ReVIDA Recovery Centers and Franklin-based 180 Health Partners are joining forces to coordinate care for pregnant women at ReVIDA's seven locations in east Tennessee and southwest Virginia. The partnership's goal is to lessen the number of infants born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, or NAS, a condition that newborns experience when they withdraw from a substance they were exposed to in utero. (Sauber, 7/17)
Arizona Republic: Former Insys Executives Sued By Arizona Attorney General's Office
The Arizona Attorney General's Office has filed a fraud lawsuit against three former executives of opioid manufacturer Insys Therapeutics of Chandler, extending their legal challenges. The lawsuit alleges that the three named defendants engaged in a marketing scheme designed to increase the sales of a highly addictive prescription drug called Subsys. (Wiles, 7/17)
Kansas City Star: Missouri Governor Parson Signs Electronic Prescribing Bill
Missourians who need prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances will soon need to have them sent electronically from their doctor to their pharmacy. The new law is designed to stop people from stealing prescription pads from doctors and hospitals and using them to forge orders for opioids and other potentially addictive drugs. (Marso, 7/18)
Modern Healthcare: Medical Marijuana Doesn't Seem To Reduce Opioid Misuse, Study Finds
Medical marijuana laws had little impact on curbing non-medical use of prescription opioids, according to a new study that raises doubts over legal marijuana as an alternative to current substance use disorder treatments. Non-medical use of prescription opioids slightly increased in states with medical marijuana laws, the study published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open found. Researchers analyzed substance use behavioral data from more than 672,000 individuals ages 12 and older from 2004 to 2012. (Johnson, 7/17)
