The opioid crisis in the United States has cost the economy at least $631 billion in just four years, according to a report released earlier this week by the Society of Actuaries, who analyzed non-medical opioid use during this time frame. Most of the costs were attributable to healthcare and premature mortality. Nearly one-third of […]
McKesson Corp., AmerisourceBergen Corp., and Cardinal Health to Pay $18B to Settle Opioid Lawsuits…
Top drug distributors are in discussions to pay $18billion to settle opioid lawsuits, according to reports. McKesson Corp., AmerisourceBergen Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc. would pay the money back over 18 years under the proposed deal, sources told The Wall Street Journal. The litigation was brought by state and local governments who blamed the companies […]
Opioid Doctor Faces up to Life in Prison…
By the time drug enforcement agents swooped into his small medical office in Martinsville, Virginia, in 2017, Dr. Joel Smithers had prescribed about half a million doses of highly addictive opioids in two years. Patients from five states drove hundreds of miles to see him, spending up to 16 hours on the road to get […]
Trump Administration Announces Nearly $2 Billion in New Funding to Combat Opioid Crisis…
The Trump administration is awarding nearly $2 billion in new funding to states and local governments to help fight the opioid crisis. Health and Human Services Secretary Alexander Azar says the grants come from money that President Donald Trump secured from Congress last year. Trump says “nothing is more important than defeating the opioid and […]
Little-Known Makers of Generic Drugs Played Central Role in Opioid Crisis…
Douglas S. Boothe was the leader of a little-known generic-drug maker seven years ago when federal agents approached his company with an urgent plea: Slash production of an addictive pain medication that was fueling a national crisis. Boothe “wasn’t interested” and rejected the Drug Enforcement Administration’s request that Actavis voluntarily cut its supply of oxycodone […]
My God, They Are Trying to Kill Us!: 76 Billion Opioid Pills – Newly Released Federal Data Unmasks the Epidemic…
America’s largest drug companies saturated the country with 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pain pills from 2006 through 2012 as the nation’s deadliest drug epidemic spun out of control, according to previously undisclosed company data released as part of the largest civil action in U.S. history. The information comes from a database maintained by the […]
Drug Distributor CEO Charged in Opioid Crisis Conspiracy…
The Rochester Drug Co-operative and its former CEO Laurence Doud III were charged on Tuesday with conspiring to defraud the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) — and the rest of the country. The company was charged with narcotics conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the United States, while Doud has been further charged with narcotics conspiracy and […]
Small-Town American Budgets Devastated by Opioid Crisis as 41 States Subpoena Big Pharma…
A surge in Opioid consumption, primarily prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl – a drug 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine – and the resulting spike in overdose related deaths is devastating families in rural America. But the opioid epidemic is laying waste to more than just the broken families…
Drug Firms Poured 780M Painkillers into West Virginia Amid Rise of Overdoses…
The T-Room here: This article originally ran in December 2016, so for some readers you may have already read this two-part series. I just came across this investigative report and was stunned by the story, the statistics and the diabolical nature of all parties – docs, pharmacy’s and Big Pharma – involved in absolutely crippling […]