painkillers News

Mind-Altering Ketamine Becomes New Pain Treatment, Despite Little Research or Regulation

WASHINGTON (AP) — As U.S. doctors scale back their use of opioid painkillers, a new option for hard-to-treat pain is taking root: ketamine, the decades-old surgical drug that is now a trendy psychedelic therapy. Prescriptions for ketamine have soared in …

DEA Failed to Punish Distributor Blamed in Opioid Crisis

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed one of the nation’s largest wholesale drug distributors to keep shipping highly addictive painkillers for nearly four years after a judge recommended it be stripped of its license for …

Teva, AbbVie Finalize $6.6 Billion U.S. Opioid Settlements

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and AbbVie Inc. have finalized the terms of settlements worth more than $6.6 billion to resolve thousands of lawsuits by U.S. state and local governments over the marketing of opioid painkillers, the companies and lawyers for …

Walgreens Flooded Florida With Addictive Opioids, Lawyer Tells Jury

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. supplied billions of opioid pills to drug addicts and criminals, contributing to an addiction epidemic in Florida, a lawyer for the state said on Monday in a civil trial against the pharmacy chain. Walgreens filled one …

New Mexico to Join Nationwide Opioid Settlement With Drug Distributors

New Mexico has agreed to join a proposed nationwide settlement worth up to $21 billion resolving claims that the three largest U.S. drug distributors fueled a deadly opioid epidemic, the state’s attorney general said on Tuesday. The state was one …

Trial Against Pharmacy Chains’ Opioid Sales Set to Begin

CLEVELAND (AP) — Opening statements are scheduled for Monday afternoon in Cleveland in a federal court trial to determine whether retail pharmacy chains created a public nuisance in how they dispensed addictive painkillers in two Ohio counties where the opioid …

J&J Agrees to Pay $230 Million to Settle New York Opioid Claim

NEW YORK (AP) — Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $230 million to New York state to settle claims that the pharmaceutical giant helped fuel the opioid crisis, Attorney General Letitia James said on Saturday. The drugmaker also agreed …

McKinsey Opioid Work Included Advising Distributors, Tribe Says

McKinsey & Co.’s role in assisting companies profiting from opioid-based painkillers was “far more extensive” than just advising makers of the highly addictive medicines, according to an Indian tribe’s newly filed lawsuit. Besides advising manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson …

Opioid Distributors Sold ‘Mountain of Pills,’ Lawyer Tells Judge

The biggest drug distributors in the U.S. were accused of swamping a West Virginia county with millions of doses of painkillers as testimony is set to begin in the first trial over the companies’ role in the opioid crisis. McKesson …

Walmart Must Turn Over Files on Alleged Opioid Mishandling

Walmart Inc. must disclose some internal files related to alleged mishandling of opioid painkillers sold through the company’s in-store pharmacies, after a judge ruled in favor of investors who claim directors failed in their oversight. Two pension funds “quite clearly …