The alarming statistics on prescription opioid overdoses are well known to medical professionals, thanks to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s widely cited finding that deaths from opioid analgesics have increased fourfold since 1999.1 Half of all fatal drug overdoses now involve opioids prescribed by a doctor. Meanwhile, a lack of rigorous research…
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. Justice Department will enlist federal prosecutors to help fight the nation’s opioid crisis by sharing information on overprescribing doctors and coordinating with public health officials to address addiction, USA Today reported on Friday. “You can’t just have an enforcement strategy alone,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch told the newspaper in an interview. She…
(Reuters)—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday new required class-wide safety labeling changes for immediate-release opioid pain medications. Among the changes, the FDA now requires these pain medications to carry a new boxed warning about the serious risks of misuse, abuse, addiction, overdose and death. The FDA also requires several additional safety labeling…
LOS ANGELES (Reuters)—A Southern California doctor was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison on Friday for over-prescribing drugs that caused the fatal overdose of three patients in a murder case capped by the first conviction of its kind in the U.S. The case against Dr. Hsiu Ying “Lisa” Tseng, 46, comes amid what…
(Reuters)—CVS Health Corp said it would make naloxone, available without a prescription at all its pharmacies across Ohio, a state with one of the highest rates of overdose-related deaths. Naloxone is already available without a prescription in CVS Health stores in more than a dozen states. Drug overdoses increased 6.5% in 2014 from a year…
The FDA recently approved a form of naloxone hydrochloride in a nasal spray that will help counter opioid overdoses. The FDA also approved an ibuprofen injection as an adjunct to opioids for use in children 6 months and older…