Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Opioid Crisis Is Hurting Chronic Pain Patients
Between the mid-1990s and the early 2010s, the number of opioid prescriptions written for Americans roughly doubled, driven by dishonest pharmaceutical marketing campaigns and unscrupulous entrepreneurs who opened so-called pill mills to sell drugs. (Maia Szalavitz, 1/3)
A pair of recent developments could substantially boost the nation’s capacity to deal with the opioid crisis. CVS and Walgreens will pay over $10 billion to settle charges against them for over dispensing opioids; this will add to the $3 billion agreed to by Walmart and would bring the current sum of expected settlements to over $54 billion. (Jerry Avorn, 1/3)
Every 5.5 minutes, someone in the United States dies from fentanyl-related overdose death. But you've probably heard about it — in this publication and on the news. With over 100,000 deaths in 2021, overdose deaths are a leading cause of injury-related death in this country — and coverage of the opioid epidemic is everywhere. (Emi Gacaj, 1/2)
The Congressional report on the FDA’s approval of Aduhelm makes some good points. As regulatory science advances, so too must the FDA’s administrative procedures. (Peter J. Pitts, 1/1)
Potentially unsafe drugs arrive in the U.S. each day. It's happening because overseas drugmakers simply face far less scrutiny than domestic U.S. drug manufacturers. The FDA frequently issues "warning letters" to these overseas factories for these safety violations. But nothing gets fixed. (Michael Stumo, 12/27)
