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+14 +1
Opioids were the most common cause of fatal poisoning of young children, a study finds
The study's sobering findings underscore the extent of the opioid epidemic’s impact on children, according to its lead author.
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+2 +1
Fentanyl deaths are soaring in Texas, and officials aren't taking key steps to stop them
As a new drug crisis worsens in Texas, experts say state and local health officials are...
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+14 +1
Big pharma executives mocked ‘pillbillies’ in emails, West Virginia opioid trial hears
Executives circulated rhymes and emails mocking “hillbillies” who became addicted to opioid painkillers even as the company poured hundreds of millions of pills into parts of Appalachia at the heart of America’s opioid epidemic.
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+11 +1
McKinsey Settles for $573 Million Over Role in Opioid Crisis
The consulting firm has reached the agreement with 47 states because of its advice to drugmakers, including Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin.
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+18 +1
Multiple states say the opioid crisis cost American economy over $2 trillion
Opioid manufacturers have cost the American economy $2.15 trillion, according to a notice of claim filed in bankruptcy court by nearly every US state and many territories. The filing was made Monday by New York, 48 other states, Washington, DC, and various other territories against Purdue Pharma and other distributors and manufacturers, according to the New York attorney general. A financial breakdown per state provided in the court filing shows that New York is seeking to claim $165 billion.
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+20 +1
Discovery of New Novel Molecule Sparks Hope for Pain and Depression Treatment
Researchers from the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) have developed a new molecule called LIH383. In a press release, they claim that this new novel molecule binds to and blocks specific opioid peptides in the brain, thus regulating the levels of opioid peptides in the entire central nervous system.
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+10 +1
West Virginia companies will pay $1.25 billion to settle opioid lawsuits
Communities in West Virginia say they would get $1.25 billion from the drug industry in a proposed settlement that would end most of the litigation stemming from the opioid crisis in the state. The deal would be the first of its kind, even as drug makers, distribution companies and pharmacies are considering settling about 3,000 lawsuits nationwide over what many — including the families of those who died of opioid addiction — say was their role in fueling a crisis that has been linked to more than 430,000 deaths in the U.S. since 2000.
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+3 +1
‘I got my life back’: Natick police share thank-you letter from woman they saved after an overdose
When the woman walked into the Natick Police Department, she brought two things with her: baked goods and a letter. Both were to say thank you to the first responders who saved her life. “I overdosed for the last time in August,” she wrote in the letter. “It was a major wake up call. I went to detox the next day and haven’t used since. Due to you guys saving my live through CPR and Narcan I got my life back!”
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+19 +1
America’s First Opioid Epidemic
As the country struggles with a terrible opioid crisis, we remember a similar epidemic that raged through the U.S. in the 1800s.
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+19 +1
Opioids saved my life. Quitting them was excruciating
I was born with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which causes extreme pain. My doctor thought I'd never get off the painkillers.
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+16 +1
Australian scientists find world-first alternative to opioid-based pain relief
Australian scientists believe they have found the world's first alternative to opioid pain relief
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+12 +1
How Australia's smallest state wound up in the middle of America's biggest drug crisis
Australia's island state is known for its rich history and pristine environment — it also plays a huge part of supplying the raw materials that make the painkillers at the centre of the United States' opioid crisis.
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+14 +1
J&J Hit With $8 Billion Jury Award Over Antipsychotic Drug
A Philadelphia jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $8 billion in damages to a man who said his use of J&J’s antipsychotic Risperdal caused enlarged breasts.
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+3 +1
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy protection
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP filed for bankruptcy protection in New York Sun...
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+12 +1
Another Way In Which Patents Contributed To The Opioid Crisis: Hospitals Ordered Not To Use Better, Less Problematic Medicines
Two years ago, we wrote about a stunning (and horrifying) study that explained how patents deeply contributed to the opioid crisis. It described the lengths that drug companies -- including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma -- went through to block any...
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+3 +1
How judges added to the grim toll of opioids
In case after case, U.S. judges sealed evidence about the risks as the body count mounted. And as a Reuters analysis found, it’s only one of many big product-liability cases in which judges have countenanced a lethal and often unlawful secrecy.
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+4 +1
Johnson & Johnson faces multibillion opioids lawsuit that could upend big pharma
Oklahoma is holding the drug giant with the family-friendly image responsible for its addiction epidemic
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+15 +1
As nation struggles with opioid crisis, workers bring addiction to the job
A new survey found that 23 percent of respondents have used drugs or alcohol on the job.
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+20 +1
Pharmaceutical abuse sent more than 350,000 people to the ER in 2016
The misuse of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications resulted in an estimated 358,000 trips to U.S. emergency departments in 2016 — and almost half of those cases involved young people ages 15 to 34, according to a new study based on a national public health surveillance system.
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+2 +1
Opioid crisis shows partnering with industry can be bad for public health
“Show me the bodies!” someone demanded at the end of my lecture a few years ago. As a scholar of public health ethics, law and policy, I had just warned an audience of professors and university administrators about the perils of partnering with, or taking money from, corporations – a common practice in public health research and policymaking.
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