Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'I Begged And Pleaded For More Time': Ohio Struggles To Safely Return Kids To Families In Face Of Opioid Epidemic
The New York Times: The Parents Passed A Drug Test. Should They Get Their Children Back?
Dylan Groves had suffered tremendously long before his tiny body was found in June at the bottom of a 30-foot well, decomposed and wrapped in plastic bags. He had been born a few months earlier with several drugs in his system, and had spent his first days in the care of a foster mother who had cuddled him while he shook and sweated through withdrawal. After 12 days, the foster mother, Andrea Bowling, was ordered to return Dylan to his father. “I begged and pleaded for more time,” she said she told the county’s child welfare agency. (Levin, 11/22)
Reuters: Bankrupt Insys Reaches Deal To Divvy Cash Among Opioid Victims
Drugmaker Insys Therapeutics Inc outlined a deal on Thursday to divide its dwindling cash among governments, insurers, hospitals and individuals who accused the company of fueling the U.S. opioid crisis. The company was largely adopting a plan it had filed in September, which now had the support of numerous groups that initially opposed it, said Brenda Funk, who represents the company, at Thursday's hearing before a U.S. bankruptcy judge Kevin Gross in Delaware. (Hals, 11/21)
The Wall Street Journal: Opioid Maker Insys Struggles To Quell Chapter 11 Plan Objections
The manufacturer, which manufactured an under-the-tongue formulation of the powerful painkiller Fentanyl, filed for chapter 11 protection in June after its former top leaders were convicted of racketeering. (Brickley, 11/21)
Los Angeles Times: Doctors Object To Plan To Help Prisoners Fight Opioid Addiction
A California company seeking to expand its role in battling opioid addiction has come under fire for an aborted plan to recruit prisoners with drug and alcohol problems to be human guinea pigs for its novel addiction recovery program. This week, the watchdog group Public Citizen asked the Food and Drug Administration to investigate the initiative launched by Anaheim-based BioCorRx, Inc. and Louisiana’s Department of Public Safety and Corrections on the grounds that it lacked the ethical, safety and legal protections that are commonplace in medical research studies involving human subjects. (Healy, 11/21)
The Baltimore Sun: Tuerk House In West Baltimore Marks Tenfold Increase In Inpatient Opioid Treatment Services
Officials at a West Baltimore drug and alcohol treatment facility officially opened renovated and expanded space Thursday able to handle a tenfold increase of people for inpatient detoxification treatment, up from four to 40. Tuerk House has been operating for five decades and is among the city’s oldest treatment centers. It has embarked on a $10.2 million expansion at a time when drug overdose deaths are at historic highs. The new beds represent the first phase of the planned upgrades. (Cohn, 11/21)
