Perspectives: Will CDC’s Search For Alternatives To Opioids Be A Success?; Congress Must Lower Drug Costs

Stat: Don't Let CDC's Guidelines Be 'A Bridge To Nowhere' For Chronic Pain Patients
The CDC began working on an update to its pain guidelines two years after they were published, largely because of criticism that the guidelines advocated less use of opioids but provided few alternatives for patients living with pain and that they were not always applied correctly. The agency’s first step was to commission the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to systematically review new evidence on opioids, complementary and alternative treatments for pain, and non-opioid painkillers. AHRQ’s review found that a number of complementary and alternative therapies can decrease pain — and even improve function — as much as pain medications do, with significantly fewer risks, for common pain conditions. (Shravani Durbhakula and Joshua M. Sharfstein, 4/29)

Missouri Independent: Capping Prescription Drug Costs Is Not A Substitute For Lowering Prices 
Lawmakers in Congress have been promising to tackle rising drug prices for years, but so far there’s been little action. Now, Congress may be running out of time as bigger issues like the war in Ukraine and inflation crowd out long-standing issues with more immediate concerns. The outrageous price of medicines has made prescription drug reform a top issue for years now as well as one that attracts bipartisan support. A recent poll showed that 91% of voters considered lowering drug prices a very important issue in the upcoming election, ranking it above COVID worries. (Tully Olson, 4/27)

Tampa Bay Times: Feds Need To Ramp Up COVID Treatment 
The nation’s response to the pandemic has taken on a new phase, as mask mandates and social distancing give way to home-based testing and outpatient treatments. That’s why it’s essential the Biden administration get its new “test-to-treat” program up to speed. With new infections rising in Florida and nationally, the program is vital for helping a fatigued nation manage this ongoing outbreak. (4/26)

Stat: Pharma Investors, Shareholders Should Not Determine Global Health 
What could go wrong when pharmaceutical company shareholders and investors shape the public health response to Covid-19? Everything, of course, including perpetuating the pandemic with immense avoidable suffering and death. And that’s exactly what happened last week at the annual shareholder meetings of Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson. (Els Torreele, 5/3)