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Graphic: Opioid painkiller is top prescription in 11 states

Americans fill about 4.5 billion prescriptions each year, at a cost of more than $323 billion. But what are we actually buying? In 11 states, the top prescriptions are opioid pain pills that are mixtures of acetaminophen and hydrocodone (brand names Vicodin and Norco), according to new data from GoodRx, an online prescription cost service.

22 Mar 2018

Viagra cuts colorectal cancer risk in animal model

A small, daily dose of Viagra significantly reduces colorectal cancer risk in an animal model that is genetically predetermined to have the third leading cause of cancer death, scientists report.

19 Mar 2018

Opioid maker funds efforts to fight addiction: Is it ‘blood money’ or charity?

A program to give naloxone overdose-antidote kits and training to front-line officers. Funding for pill disposal boxes in pharmacies, clinics and police stations across North Carolina. A radio campaign in Connecticut warning of the dangers of opioid abuse. A new medicine to treat opioid-induced constipation.

14 Mar 2018

Lifting therapy caps proves a load off Medicare patients’ shoulders

Physical therapy helps Leon Beers, 73, get out of bed in the morning and maneuver around his home using his walker. Other treatment strengthens his throat muscles so that he can communicate and swallow food, said his sister Karen Morse. But in mid-January, his home health care agency told Morse it could no longer provide these services because he had used all his therapy benefits allowed under Medicare for the year.

14 Mar 2018

Participants in rogue herpes vaccine research take legal action

Three people injected with an unauthorized herpes vaccine by a Southern Illinois University researcher have filed suit against his company, demanding compensation for alleged adverse side effects from the experiments.

13 Mar 2018

Precision oncology may improve overall survival, lower healthcare costs for advanced cancer patients

The use of advanced molecular diagnostic technologies, such as Next-Generation Sequencing-based gene panel testing, to select targeted therapies in advanced cancer patients is known as precision oncology.

13 Mar 2018

No-go for Idaho: Back to the drawing board on state-based health plans

No, you can't. That's what federal officials told Idaho regulators and the state's governor late Thursday regarding the state's plan to allow insurers to sell health plans that fall short of the Affordable Care Act's requirements.

9 Mar 2018

Of ‘miracles’ and money: Why hemophilia drugs are so expensive

When Landon Morris was diagnosed with hemophilia shortly after birth, his mother, Jessica Morris, was devastated. "It was like having your dreams — all the dreams you imagined for your child — just kind of disappear," she recalled.

8 Mar 2018

Trump’s budget proposal swings at drug prices with a glancing blow

President Donald Trump's new budget proposal flirts with combating high prescription drug prices, but industry watchers say the tweaks to Medicare and Medicaid do little more than dance around the edges of lowering the actual prices of drugs.

13 Feb 2018

Symptoms of alcoholism affect prescription drug adherence to treat disease

Symptoms of alcoholism make it more difficult for some people to regularly take the prescription drug naltrexone, which could help treat their disease, a researcher at Oregon State University has found.

8 Feb 2018

As states target high drug prices, pharma targets state lawmakers

It was expected to be a perfunctory statehouse meeting — three lobbyists and a legislator discussing a proposal to educate Louisiana doctors about the price of drugs they prescribe.

1 Feb 2018

Expert advice for the corporate titans taking on health care

An announcement Tuesday by three of the nation's corporate titans — Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase & Co. — that they are joining forces to address the high costs of employee health care has stirred the health policy pot. It immediately sent shock waves through the health sector of the stock market and reinvigorated talk about health care technology, value and quality.

31 Jan 2018

Analysis reveals drop in long-term opioid use among military veterans

A new study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, published by Springer, shows that opioid prescribing has dropped after a peak in 2012. Lead author Katherine Hadlandsmyth of the Iowa City VA Healthcare System and the University of Iowa in the US further noted that the decline was mostly due to decreases in long-term opioid prescribing, which carries much greater risk for harmful side effects, addiction and overdose, relative to short-term prescribing.

30 Jan 2018

Herbal products may affect properties of prescription drugs and lead to dangerous side effects

An analysis of published studies and reports indicates that a number of herbal products may affect the properties of prescription drugs, leading to alterations in the drugs' effectiveness as well as potentially dangerous side effects.

25 Jan 2018

Big Pharma greets hundreds of ex-federal workers at the ‘revolving door’

Alex Azar's job hop from drugmaker Eli Lilly to the Trump administration reflects ever-deepening ties between the pharmaceutical industry and the federal government.

25 Jan 2018

University under fire for off-the-grid herpes vaccine experiments

Southern Illinois University's medical school has halted all herpes research, one of its most high-profile projects, amid growing controversy over a researcher's unauthorized methods offshore and in the U.S.

23 Jan 2018

States face costly conundrum: How to treat inmates with hepatitis C

In a corner of Jymie Jimerson’s house in the town of Sparta, in southwestern Missouri, she has set up a kind of shrine. It has Native American art representing her Cherokee heritage alongside Willie Nelson albums, books and photos in remembrance of her late husband.

23 Jan 2018

Grassley calls for ‘corrective action’ on abuses in herpes vaccine research

A Republican senator is demanding that the Trump administration and a university scrutinize how a researcher was able to inject an experimental herpes vaccine into human subjects without routine safety oversight.

5 Jan 2018

From retirement to the front lines of hepatitis C treatment

When a hepatitis C treatment called Harvoni was released in 2014, Dr. Ronald Cirillo knew it was a big deal.

5 Jan 2018

Opioid prescribing for disabled Medicare beneficiaries related to county-level economic factors

For non-elderly Americans on disability, local prescribing of opioid pain medications is significantly related to county-level economic factors like unemployment and income level, reports a study in the January issue of Medical Care, published by Wolters Kluwer.

28 Dec 2017