Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
In Anticipated Study, Monthly Opioid Treatment Shown To Be About As Effective As Daily Pill
The New York Times: Study Finds Competing Opioid Treatments Have Similar Outcomes
A long-awaited study has found that two of the main medications for treating opioid addiction are similarly effective, a finding likely to intensify the hard-fought competition between drugmakers seeking to dominate the rapidly expanding opioid treatment market. The study, funded by the federal government, compared Vivitrol, which comes in a monthly shot and blocks the effects of opioids, and Suboxone, which is taken daily in strips that dissolve on the tongue and contains a relatively mild opioid that helps minimize withdrawal symptoms and cravings. (Goodnough and Zernike, 11/14)
The Washington Post: Medications To Kick Opioid Addiction Are Equally Effective, Study Finds
The first major head-to-head comparison of medically assisted treatment approaches confirms that users now have two research-based options, according to the team of scientists led by Joshua D. Lee and John Rotrosen of New York University Medical School. But each method also showed a distinct disadvantage. (Bernstein, 11/14)
The Wall Street Journal: Opioid Addiction Study Finds The Drug Vivitrol, Once Begun, Is As Effective As Suboxone
“What is new, and what the study was really about from our perspective, was: What happens if you are able to get people onto one or the other medication?” said his colleague, John Rotrosen, another leader of the study and a physician and psychiatry professor at New York University School of Medicine. “What we were really hoping, and what we found was...the two medications would be sufficiently equal, so providers and patients and families really recognized they have a choice,” he said. (Whalen, 11/14)
Stat: Long-Awaited Study Finds Monthly Vivitrol As Effective As Daily Pill For Opioid Addiction
Previously, there’s been a “widespread belief” that patients “don’t do as well on naltrexone as they do on buprenorphine,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of NIDA. “We’re hopeful this changes the prejudice.” (Blau, 11/14)
In other news on the opioid crisis —
The Washington Post: 44 State Attorneys General Want Repeal Of Law That Curbed DEA Powers
Forty-four state attorneys general asked Congress on Tuesday to repeal a law that effectively strips the Drug Enforcement Administration of potent weapons against large drug companies that have allowed hundreds of millions of pain pills to spill onto the black market. The state law enforcement officials, many from places hit hard by the opioid epidemic, signed a letter from the National Association of Attorneys General to Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate. Congress approved the law by unanimous consent, without a vote in either chamber, in 2016. (Bernstein and Higham, 11/14)
Boston Globe: Mass. Governor Aims To Expand Battle Against Opioid Addiction
Governor Charlie Baker proposed Tuesday a sweeping package intended to boost the state’s battle against opioid addiction, including an effort to ensure higher-quality addiction treatment and a new provision allowing doctors to commit unwilling patients to 72 hours in a treatment facility. Noting that the state has added 1,100 treatment beds since 2015, Baker said it is now time to address some of the gaps, particularly in the care provided after detoxification. (Freyer, 11/15)
Columbus Dispatch: DeWine Urging Congress To Restore DEA’s Power To Fight Opioid Epidemic
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine joined 43 other state attorneys general to ask Congress to repeal a law they argue has damaged the Drug Enforcement Agency’s ability to crack down on drug manufacturers and distributors that have contributed to the nation’s sweeping opioid epidemic. In a letter Tuesday to House and Senate leadership, the attorneys general argue that a bill passed by voice vote in 2016 made it more difficult for the DEA to take action against drug companies that were flooding communities with prescription painkillers. (Wehrman, 11/14)
The Nashville Tennessean: A Personal Quest To Give Doctors The Tools To Battle Opioid Abuse
A Memphis doctor who knows first-hand the pain of losing a child to an overdose is fighting to change medical education in Tennessee so there are more physicians throughout the state with addiction medicine expertise. (Fletcher, 11/14)
