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+18 +1
Fed Up With Drug Companies, Hospitals Decide to Start Their Own
A group of large hospital systems plans to create a nonprofit generic drug company to battle shortages and high prices.
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+19 +1
OxyContin maker will stop marketing opioid products to doctors amid scrutiny
The maker of the painkiller OxyContin will stop actively marketing its opioid products to doctors. Purdue Pharmaceuticals announced that it would cut its sales staff by more than half and would stop sending sales representatives to doctor's offices to discuss opioid products.
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+11 +1
Larry Krasner Sues Big Pharma, Drops All Marijuana Possession Charges
With a little over a month in office, Philly’s new DA is already further reforming the city’s drug policy.
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+22 +1
U.S. says 'Pharma Bro' Shkreli deserves at least 15 years in prison
U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday said former drug company executive Martin Shkreli should spend at least 15 years in prison after being convicted of fraud, saying his lack of remorse and respect for the law justified a long time behind bars.
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+11 +1
If You Want to Kill Drug Dealers, Start with Big Pharma
Big corporations, not street dealers, are the true authors and profiteers of the opioid crisis... At a recent rally in New Hampshire, Donald Trump called for the death penalty for drug traffickers as part of a plan to combat the opioid epidemic in the United States. At a Pennsylvania rally a few weeks earlier, he called for the same.
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+23 +1
This Is The Sickening Amount Pharmaceutical Companies Pay Top Journal Editors
It's no secret that scientists can be corrupted - in the past, researchers have purposefully hidden data on climate change, and the dangers of sugar, just to name a few.
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+10 +1
Canadian pharmacy fined $34 million for importing counterfeit drugs into U.S.
Federal prosecutors have fined a Canadian online pharmacy $34 million for importing counterfeit drugs and unapproved pharmaceuticals into the U.S., ABC News reported. The pharmacy, Canada Drugs, branded itself as a safe alternative for patients in need of drugs that sell for high prices in the U.S. U.S. prosecutors said the company’s business model is based on selling illegally imported misbranded and unapproved drugs from all over the world, according to ABC News.
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+20 +1
‘Pharma Bro’ Shkreli Is In Prison, But Daraprim’s Price Is Still High
It was 2015 when Martin Shkreli, then CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals and the notorious “pharma bro,” jacked up the cost of the lifesaving drug Daraprim by 5,000 percent. Overnight, its price tag skyrocketed from $13.50 a pill to $750. The move drew criticism from all corners. Congress hauled Shkreli in for questioning on television. Media outlets shamed the practice. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the powerful trade group for branded drugs, distanced itself, saying Turing “does not represent the values of @PhRMA” and kicked off a campaign it described as “more lab coat, less hoodie.”
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+11 +1
Drug Companies Selling More ‘Lifestyle,’ Less ‘Symptom’
Prescription drug commercials are getting longer and providing less factual information. A study published in the Annals of Family Medicine finds that the majority of these ads focus on lifestyle improvements made post-medication rather than side-effects and the negative emotions associated with certain health issues.
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+17 +1
Antibiotic apocalypse: EU scraps plans to tackle drug pollution, despite fears of rising resistance
The EU has scrapped plans for a clampdown on pharmaceutical pollution that contributes to the spread of deadly superbugs. Plans to monitor farm and pharmaceutical companies, to add environmental standards to EU medical product rules and to oblige environmental risk assessments for drugs used by humans have all been discarded, leaked documents seen by the Guardian reveal.
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+20 +1
FDA approves first generic version of EpiPen
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.
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+20 +1
Experimental painkiller molecule as powerful as morphine, but not addictive
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.
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+13 +1
Hospitals Prepare To Launch Their Own Drug Company To Fight High Prices and Shortages
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.
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+20 +1
Report: Pharma exec says he had 'moral requirement' to raise drug price 400%
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.
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+3 +1
OxyContin goes global — “We’re only just getting started”
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.
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+16 +1
Move Over, Martin Shkreli. This CEO Says It's His 'Moral' Imperative to Raise a Drug's Price By 400 Percent
Morals are slippery things. We all claim to have them, but somehow we misplace them at the oddest of times. We go to work, scheme against our colleagues, lie to the occasional customer and, during a coffee break, wail at the immorality of a politician or college football coach. Some might mutter, though, that morals are like pornographic movies.
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+9 +1
B.C. tables bill to clear the way for lawsuit against opioid makers
The British Columbia government has tabled legislation aimed at fast-tracking a lawsuit against dozens of players in the opioid industry that it says knowingly spread misinformation and downplayed the addictive properties of the drugs, contributing to the overdose crisis. Attorney-General David Eby said the Opioid Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act, introduced on Monday, would help “facilitate the introduction of evidence” to expedite the class-action lawsuit announced in late August.
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+18 +1
Scientists question whether prescription practices can help the environment
A huge rise in the number of people taking antidepressant drugs is potentially posing a threat to the environment, according to new research. An expert in the effects of human waste on marine life and an expert in ethical pharmacology, both at the University of Portsmouth, are calling for prescribers to be taught what happens when drugs in human waste enter the environment.
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+16 +1
Different cognitive effects of dextromethorphan and psilocybin observed in new study
New research helps identify some of the differences between the cognitive effects of classical hallucinogens and dissociative hallucinogens. The study was published in the journal Psychopharmacology. “Both classic (serotonergic) and dissociative (glutamatergic, NMDA-mediated) hallucinogens are being investigated as potential novel, fast-acting therapeutics for mood disorders and substance use disorders,” said study author Frederick Barrett of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
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+19 +1
Newly developed fentanyl strips help alert drug users of a hidden danger
The strip detects fentanyl, the cheap synthetic opioid, mixed with street drugs – that’s been blamed for the surge of overdose deaths. It’s controversial because helping drug users test their supplies could be seen as advocating abuse.
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