prescription drugs

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Trump Administration Makes Big Move on Pharmaceuticals

Americans will be allowed to import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada

(Newser) - The Trump administration said Wednesday it will set up a system to allow Americans to legally import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada, weakening a long-standing ban that had stood as a top priority for the politically powerful pharmaceutical industry. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar made the announcement Wednesday...

AG: Fake Pharmacist Doled Out 750K Prescriptions

For over 10 years, Kim Thien Le worked as Bay Area pharmacist without license: Xavier Becerra

(Newser) - For more than 10 years, Kim Thien Le handed out scads of prescriptions as a pharmacist at a handful of Walgreens stores in the Bay Area—nearly 750,000 scripts when all was said and done, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra noted Tuesday. The problem, per the AG's statement:...

Opioid Crisis Sees Ray of Hope
Opioid Crisis Sees Ray of Hope

Opioid Crisis Sees Ray of Hope

Use of prescription opioids actually fell in 2018

(Newser) - For those grieving the opioid crisis, a sliver of hope: America's use of prescription opioids fell more than ever last year amid a government crackdown on drugmakers and pharmacists, CNBC reports. Overall use dropped 17% in 2018, the biggest decline on record, according to the health research firm IQVIA...

Amid Increasing Drug Recalls, FDA Focuses on 2 Factories

Agency: Factories in China, India that made blood pressure drugs have equipment, process problems

(Newser) - With the significant number of drugs and drug ingredients made overseas, it's hard for the FDA to provide airtight oversight. But two plants in China and India that pump out oft-prescribed blood pressure and heart medications are now on the agency's radar after FDA tests revealed trace amounts...

Prescription Was Just One Letter Off, but ... Oh Man

Woman given ED cream for her eyes, prompting call for use of block letters by doctors

(Newser) - A woman in Scotland went to the doctor with a dry eye condition and left with a prescription for a lubricant called VitA-POS. All good so far. The pharmacist, however, read the doctor's writing as Vitaros, which, while just one letter different, happens to be a cream used to...

Insurer's Drug Plan: We'll Pay You to Go to Mexico

Workers in Utah get cash incentive to buy cheaper drugs across the border

(Newser) - It's no secret that many prescription drugs are cheaper in Mexico than in the US—stories about "medical tourism" have been around for years, like this one in Pacific Standard . Now, however, a large health insurer in Utah has employed a novel approach to take advantage of the...

Trump Unveils Plan to Lower Drug Prices

It would apply to drugs administered at doctors' offices

(Newser) - Less than two weeks before the midterm elections, in which health care has been a major issue, President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a plan to lower prices for some prescription drugs, the AP reports, saying it would stop unfair practices that force Americans to pay higher prices than people...

Amazon Just Made a Big Move That Might Worry CVS

Jeff Bezos is buying PillPack, an online pharmacy that dispenses prescription drugs

(Newser) - There's a reason shares of CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid were tumbling Thursday, and it can be summed up in one word: Amazon. The retailing behemoth made its first significant move into the pharmacy business by buying PillPack, an online company that ships medications to customers' homes, reports the...

Company Sold $1.3B of a Drug That's Not Hugely Effective

Inside New York state's pushback against Orkambi

(Newser) - Only 28,000 of the planet's 7 billion people are eligible to take the cystic fibrosis drug Orkambi. And yet that tiny population enabled drugmaker Vertex to make roughly $1.3 billion in sales off the product. How does that math work out? The annual price of the drug...

Congress Passes 'Right-to-Try' Drug Bill

Law will let terminally ill patients bypass FDA

(Newser) - A "right-to-try" bill that allows terminally ill patients to request medication that hasn't been approved by the Food and Drug Administration has passed Congress and is expected to be signed by President Trump. The bill, which passed the Senate last August, sailed through the House Tuesday with a...

FDA Approves Potential Migraine Game-Changer

Monthly injection reduces migraine frequency without major side effects

(Newser) - "Progress, but not a panacea." So proclaims an editorial in journal JAMA on Aimovig, a first-of-its-kind drug purported to prevent chronic migraines without many side effects that was on Thursday approved by the FDA. The drug from Amgen and Novartis, and similar ones in their final stages, "...

Want Cheaper Prescriptions? Don't Always Use Insurance

Study finds drugs often cheaper than insurance co-pays

(Newser) - Having health insurance means saving money on prescriptions, right? Not necessarily. A study published Tuesday in JAMA found insurance co-pays for generic drugs were actually higher than the cost of the drug 28% of the time. For name-brand drugs, it was 6%. Say your insurance has a $10 co-pay for...

Opioids No Better Than Other Meds at Treating Pain
Tylenol, Advil Work
Just as Well as Opioids
NEW STUDY

Tylenol, Advil Work Just as Well as Opioids

Study finds they're not much better than over-the-counter meds for pain relief

(Newser) - Even after overdose and addiction risks became known, opioid prescriptions continued on the belief that the drugs were more effective at relieving pain than other medications. New research suggests that may not be the case. In a study in JAMA , scientists say opioids appear to be no better at treating...

The 'Secondary Victims' of Adults' Opioid Addiction: Kids

More children, teens ending up in hospital from overdoses

(Newser) - Opioid poisonings and overdoses are sending increasing numbers of US children and teens to the hospital, according to a study showing a substantial rise in young patients needing critical care. The study, published Monday in Pediatrics, included accidental poisonings along with overdoses from intentional use, per the AP . Prescription painkillers...

Cost of This Drug in 2013: $138. Cost Now: $2,979

Horizon Pharma's Vimovo just saw latest price hike, but maker says most will pay less than $10

(Newser) - A painkiller that cost $138 a bottle less than five years ago now hovers at close to $3,000—the latest price hike to put the pharmaceutical industry in the spotlight. CNNMoney reports Horizon Pharma's latest increase on Vimovo, which has seen nearly a dozen such rate rises since...

Stuck With Leftover Opioids? Walmart Has a Solution

Walmart to offer first-of-its-kind product to customers

(Newser) - Walmart is helping customers get rid of leftover opioids by giving them packets that turn the addictive painkillers into a useless gel. The retail giant announced Wednesday that it will provide the packets free with opioid prescriptions filled at its 4,700 US pharmacies. The small packets, made by DisposeRx...

A Mystery Powder Arrived in the Mail. It Almost Killed 9

Backpackers hospitalized Tuesday in Australia in state of 'agitated delirium'

(Newser) - Nine backpackers from four countries were sent to hospitals in Australia this week, including at least three who were on life support Wednesday, after snorting a white powder sent through the mail. Seven men and two women, ages 21 to 25, snorted a white powder they assumed was cocaine around...

The Intentions Were Good. Then the Drug's Price Exploded

'The Washington Post' takes a look at the path Daranide has taken

(Newser) - It's a rare genetic illness and, in the Washington Post's telling, a "frightening" one. And it's one whose symptoms many sufferers were able to control for free, or a pittance. That's changed in an extreme and dramatic fashion in recent years, making the drug Keveyis...

Report: To Protect a Client and Itself, CVS to Buy Aetna

Deal is worth $69B, says source

(Newser) - CVS will buy insurance giant Aetna in a roughly $69 billion deal that will protect a key client—and possibly protect itself from Amazon—a person with knowledge of the matter said Sunday. CVS will pay about $207 in cash and stock for each share of Aetna, according to the...

He Was Witness to a Double Murder—From 600 Miles Away

Video game microphone captured shooting in Kansas

(Newser) - Cody Ha may have been 600 miles from his friend in Texas, but the 23-year-old Kansas man sounded as though he were in the same room via the microphones and headphones the pair used to communicate while playing video games online with others Saturday. Then, around 10pm, Ashley Martinez of...

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