Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Health Leaders Push To Get Naloxone Into Hands Of Those Who Use Opioids
San Jose Mercury News: Opioid Epidemic Fuels Demand For Overdose Drug
Naloxone — often referred to as Narcan — blocks opioid receptors in the brain to counteract the effects of an overdose. It comes in a spray and injectable form, and has long been used successfully by paramedics and hospital emergency room staff to treat overdoses. Despite evidence that training opioid users and those close to them to use the drug saves lives, the organizations that provide it say they haven’t been able to get the funding to purchase enough of the drug to keep up with demand. Yet as opioid-related deaths continue to mount, there are efforts in some areas to make the drug more widely available. (Drummond, 1/25)
New Hampshire Union Leader: NH Woman Suing Drug Maker, Physician's Assistant
A Rochester woman who became hooked on the powerful painkiller Subsys is suing its makers, the physician’s assistant who prescribed it for her and the pain center where he worked for medical negligence and violating the state’s Consumer Protection Act...She is suing Christopher Clough, a physician’s assistant who treated her from October 2012 to August 2015 and whose license was revoked by the state Board of Medicine last year; Dr. O’Connell’s PainCare Centers Inc. of Somersworth, and Insys Therapeutics Inc. of Chandler, Ariz., the maker of Subsys. (Grossmith, 1/25)
