oxyContin is a dying business in America. With the nation in the grip of an opioid epidemic that has claimed more than 200,000 lives, the U.S. medical establishment is turning away from painkillers. Top health officials are discouraging primary care doctors from prescribing them for chronic pain, saying there is no proof they work long-term and substantial evidence they put patients at risk.

A pharmaceutical company executive defended his company's recent 400% drug price increase, telling the Financial Times that his company had a "moral requirement to sell the product at the highest price." The head of the US Food and Drug Administration blasted the executive in a response on Twitter. Nirmal Mulye, founder and president of Nostrum Pharmaceuticals, commented in a story Tuesday about the decision to raise the price of an antibiotic mixture called nitrofurantoin from about $500 per bottle to more than $2,300.

Sometimes IV bags are hard for hospitals to come by. Other times it's injectable folic acid to treat anemias. Right now, the tissue-numbing agent lidocaine is in short supply. Shortages of commonplace generic drugs have plagued hospitals in recent years. And with short supplies and fewer suppliers for key drugs, there have been price increases. Hospital purchasing agents keep searching for new sources for the medications that patients need, while clinicians scramble to find alternatives.

As an opioid epidemic spreads across the western world, researchers believe they’re close to developing a non-addictive painkiller. Figures from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) estimate that about 115 people in the country are overdosing on opioids every single day. Aside from the financial costs such an addiction brings to a national healthcare system, it can be hugely traumatic for the person addicted to these drugs, and for their families.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the first generic version of EpiPen and EpiPen Jr (epinephrine) auto-injector for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions, including those that are life-threatening (anaphylaxis), in adults and pediatric patients who weigh more than 33 pounds. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA gained approval to market its generic epinephrine auto-injector in 0.3 mg and 0.15 mg strengths.

Lilly makes medicines that help people live longer, healthier, more active lives. We were founded by Eli Lilly in 1876, and are now the 10th largest pharmaceutical company in the world. http://www.lilly.com

Isis Pharmaceuticals on Friday announced that it will change its name to Ionis Pharmaceuticals. The company's shares, which now trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker "ISIS," will trade under the new ticker symbol "IONS." The new ticker symbol will become effective on Tuesday. Ionis Pharmaceuticals did not mention the so-called Islamic State, the terror group also known as ISIS.

Doping in sport is widespread and shows little sign of abating. Athletes are dropping out of the Rio Olympics like flies. Maria Sharapova was banned for two years after testing positive for meldonium; a Romanian kayaking team failed their drug test, disqualifying them pending further investigations; and the International Olympic Committee announced that they could ban up to 31 athletes from competing because retests of their samples collected during the 2008 Beijing Olympics indicated the presence of banned substances.

Mark Baum believes the relentless EpiPen price hikes are "shameful" and his company is plotting a $100 alternative for the lifesaving allergy treatment. Baum, known for offering a $1 substitute for the $750 AIDS drug Daraprim, told CNNMoney on Tuesday that his company Imprimis Pharmaceuticals (IMMY) has been quietly working on a compounded version of EpiPen for months. The company hopes to have it ready by the end of the year.

Does your EpiPen cost a fortune? Blame Mylan for that. Anger and bipartisan disgust toward Mylan, the drugmaker that sells the EpiPen, increased after the company hiked up prices to $608 for a two-pack, up from about $100 in 2009. The company is also under fire for other shady practices involving the CEO’s mother. But Mylan's chief executive says not so fast."I think many people incorrectly assume we make $600 off each EpiPen.

Mylan said on Monday the auto-injector EpiPen pretax profits were higher than it told Congress, according to Dow Jones.

For $US20, a group of high school students has created 3.7 grams of an active ingredient used in the medicine Daraprim, which would sell in the United States for between $US35,000 and $US110,000. Pyrimethamine, the active ingredient in Daraprim, treats a parasitic infection in people with weak immune systems such as pregnant women and HIV patients.

Drug maker Actavis UK broke competition law by raising prices of hydrocortisone tablets by more than 12,000 percent, Britain's competition watchdog said in a provisional ruling on Friday. Higher prices meant the tablets cost Britain's National Health Service (NHS) about 70 million pounds last year, up from about 522,000 pounds previously, the CMA said.

OxyContin is a dying business in America. This is the third part of a Los Angeles Times investigation exploring the role of OxyContin in the nation’s opioid epidemic. With the nation in the grip of an opioid epidemic that has claimed more than 200,000 lives, the U.S. medical establishment is turning away from painkillers. Top health officials are discouraging primary care doctors from prescribing them for chronic pain, saying there is no proof they work long-term and substantial evidence they put patients at risk.

Outspoken former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli said the national outrage over drug pricing was blown out of proportion and heightened by the U.S. presidential election, although he conceded he could have predicted the blowback better. “In terms of regret, maybe not seeing that as acutely would’ve been a minor regret,” Shkreli said during an interview on Bloomberg TV Friday. “But because the price increase has stuck, so to speak, I don’t really, that’s the main mission...

CVS is now selling a rival, generic version of Mylan’s EpiPen at about a sixth of its price, just months after the maker of the life-saving allergy treatment was eviscerated before Congress because of its soaring cost to consumers. The drugstore chain says it will charge $109.99 for a two-pack of the authorized generic version of Adrenaclick, a lesser-known treatment compared to EpiPen, which can cost more than $600.

A totally free alternative to the expensive epinephrine auto-injector EpiPen will soon be available in the United States, thanks to the return of Kaleo Pharma’s auto-injector Auvi-Q. Auvi-Q is an auto-adrenaline-injection system similar to EpiPen. Manufacturer Kaleo had to recall it last fall, but it has been allowed by authorities to return to the market by 14th of February this year.

This week, drug manufacturer Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals settled a lawsuit with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for US$100 million, for engaging in illegal anti-competitive behaviour to ensure its continued monopoly over a life-saving medication for infants with epilepsy. More than a decade ago, Acthar Gel sold for $40 a vial, but since it's been acquired by Mallinckrodt, the price has been raised to more than $34,000 a vial, netting the company more than $1 billion in revenue in 2015.

Mayor Ray Stephanson is ready to move forward with a civil lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, a drug manufacturer. Mayor Stephanson says the city has internal emails that show the company knowingly allowed OxyContin into the black market, and he claims the city will have to spend tens of millions of dollars to deal with the drug problem now plaguing Everett. Hil Kaman is the city's Public Health and Safety Director, and he's been investigating the problem.

Federal antitrust regulators are eyeing big drugmaker Mylan's EpiPen business, the company said this week. Mylan, in a statement, said the Federal Trade Commission asked it "months ago" for information about its anti-allergy EpiPen "as part of a preliminary investigation." The disclosure comes nearly five months after two United States senators asked the FTC to investigate whether Mylan violated antitrust laws to protect the auto-injector EpiPen from competition.

Where’s the outrage?

A drug sold for years overseas to treat a rare form of muscular dystrophy was OKed Thursday by the FDA to be sold in the U.S., but it comes at a high price. The Wall Street Journal reports the now-FDA-approved deflazacort will be offered by Marathon Pharmaceuticals for $89,000 or so a year, up to 70 times its cost outside the U.S.; Marathon CFO Babar Ghias tells the Washington Post the net price will be $54,000 after rebates and discounts. Some who rely on it to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week approved a drug made by Marathon Pharmaceuticals to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a devastating muscle-wasting disease that mainly affects young boys. The drug, Emflaza, known generically as deflazacort, belongs to a class of anti-inflammatory drugs known as corticosteroids that are frequently used to treat DMD and other conditions.

A new way of developing painkillers has been discovered by researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. A team of scientists used computational simulation to analyze interactions at the cell’s docking sites for painkillers. These sites are called the opioid receptors. When their prototype of a morphine-like molecule was used in an animal model, it was able to produce substantial pain relief in inflamed tissues while healthy tissues remained unaffected. This suggests that the severe side effects currently associated with these types of painkillers could be avoided.

Leaked internal emails appear to show employees at one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies calling for “celebration” over price hikes of cancer drugs, an investigation has revealed. Staff at Aspen Pharmacare reportedly plotted to destroy stocks of life-saving medicines during a price dispute with the Spanish health service in 2014. After purchasing five different cancer drugs from British firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)...

Pharmaceutical company Mylan sued West Virginia in 2015 to keep its EpiPens on the state’s “preferred drug list,” which, if successful, would mean that the state’s Medicaid programs would have to automatically pay for the pricey epinephrine auto-injectors. The bold and unusual move by Mylan—which ultimately failed—is yet another example of the aggressive marketing and legal tactics the company used to boost profits from EpiPens, which halt life-threatening allergic reactions.

Amid calls for faster reviews, researchers look for ways to catch dangerous drugs.

The Ohio House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday aimed at allowing low-cost alternatives to the EpiPen in the Buckeye State. Dubbed as the "Epinephrine Accessibility Act,” House Bill 101 seeks to make auto-injectors more affordable and accessible for those who rely on them to treat life-threatening allergic reactions.

Almost one-third of new drugs approved by U.S. regulators over a decade ended up years later with warnings about unexpected — sometimes life-threatening — side effects or complications, according to a new analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Researchers looked at potential problems that cropped up during the routine monitoring that's done once a medicine has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and is on the market. The results, published Tuesday, covered all 222 prescription drugs approved by the FDA from 2001 through 2010.

The state's attorney general filed the lawsuit Wednesday, alleging fraudulent marketing. "They knew they were wrong," Mike DeWine says, "but they did it anyway — and they continue to do it."

Some pharmaceutical companies are troubled by stratospheric drug prices. Several have vowed to limit price hikes, for instance. And the powerful drug lobbying group PhRMA is at least trying to distract consumers’ attention away from price gouging by dangling shiny advertisements about their life-saving research. But there are some companies that just don’t care. Mylan appears to be one of those.

The US has a highly developed pharmaceutical industry offering treatments for all kinds of mental disorders. Millions of Americans are being medicated for ailments as diverse as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and many others. Even young children are being put on psychiatric drugs. If parents decline such treatment, social services may intervene.

EpiPen maker Mylan is racing to put down a revolt from shareholders outraged by a $98 million pay package for its former CEO.

The EpiPen was invented in the 1970s by a biomedical engineer, Sheldon Kaplan, who was searching for a way to treat allergic reactions quickly. What he came up with was the EpiPen we know today: a pen-like device that delivers a premeasured dose of the hormone epinephrine in emergency situations. The device is ubiquitous in our country, carried by those with asthma or life-threatening allergies.

Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceutical entrepreneur vilified as the "pharma bro" for raising the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000 percent, will go on trial on Monday for what U.S. prosecutors called a Ponzi-like scheme at his former hedge fund and a drug company he once ran.