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Walgreens, the country’s second-largest pharmacy chain, announced Wednesday that it is eliminating “task-based metrics” from performance evaluations to allow its pharmacy staffers to “place even greater focus on patient care.” They will now be evaluated “solely on the behaviors that best support patient care and enhance the patient experience,” Walgreens said in a news release. (Kaplan, 10/27)

The experimental Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab, hailed after it slowed patients’ cognitive decline in a clinical trial, may have contributed to the death in June of a patient in the study, STAT has learned. (Mast, 10/28)

Leading consulting firm McKinsey & Co has agreed to settle claims by hundreds of U.S. local governments and school districts around the country that it fueled an epidemic of opioid addiction through its work for bankrupt OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP and other drug companies. The deal was disclosed in a court filing Wednesday evening in San Francisco federal court. Its terms were not made public, and McKinsey and a lawyer for the settling plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Pierson, 10/27)

A bill named after a 22-year-old Alaskan who died of a fentanyl overdose took a step forward this week, with companion legislation to a U.S. Senate proposal now introduced in the House. Robert “Bruce” Snodgrass of Anchorage died in October 2021. In the year since, his mother helped advocate for legislation to spread awareness about deadly synthetic opioids like fentanyl. (Rogerson, 10/27)

Dana and John Pope had never heard of kratom before their 23-year-old son, Ethan, was found dead on the kitchen floor in his apartment last December with his puppy by his side. Extracted from the leaves of a tropical tree native to Southeast Asia, kratom is used to make capsules, powders and liquids and is marketed as an aid for pain, anxiety and drug dependence. In Georgia and some other states, it’s often sold at gas stations and smoke shops. ... The lawsuit was originally filed in May and an expanded version was filed earlier this week. The lawyers who filed the suit said they want to send a message that kratom is unsafe for human consumption. (Brumback, 10/27)