Prescription Drug News and Research

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FDA participates in major global operation to target illegal prescription drugs sold online

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in partnership with international regulatory and law enforcement agencies, recently took action against more than 500 websites that illegally sell potentially dangerous, unapproved versions of prescription medicines, including opioids, antibiotics and injectable epinephrine products to American consumers.

25 Sep 2017

Beta blockers offer no additional benefit for heart attack patients who take other drugs

A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill finds beta blockers are not needed after a heart attack if heart-attack survivors are taking ACE inhibitors and statins.

19 Sep 2017

Without price breaks, rural hospitals struggle to stock costly, lifesaving drugs

Hospital pharmacist Mandy Langston remembers when Lulabelle Berry arrived at Stone County Medical Center's emergency department last year.

18 Sep 2017

FDA moves to guard against abuse of ‘orphan drug’ program

The Food and Drug Administration is changing the way it approves medicines known as "orphan drugs" after revelations that drugmakers may be abusing a law intended to help patients with rare diseases.

13 Sep 2017

Meningitis B vaccine’s high price tag poses a health care conundrum

Four years ago, when meningitis B, an extremely rare but potentially lethal form of the infection, sickened a small number of college students at Princeton and the University of California-Santa Barbara, there was no vaccine against the disease sold in the U.S. Despite its availability abroad, it had never been licensed in the country due to its limited marketability.

8 Sep 2017

St. Kitts launches probe of herpes vaccine tests on U.S. patients

The government of St. Kitts and Nevis has launched an investigation into the clinical trial for a herpes vaccine by an American company because it said its officials were not notified about the experiments.

31 Aug 2017

Pioneering cancer gene therapy gets green light — and $475,000 price tag

The country's first approved gene therapy — approved Wednesday to fight leukemia that resists standard therapies — will cost $475,000 for a one-time treatment, its manufacturer announced.

30 Aug 2017

Offshore rush for herpes vaccine roils debate over U.S. safety rules

Defying U.S. safety protections for human trials, an American university and a group of wealthy libertarians, including a prominent Donald Trump supporter, are backing the offshore testing of an experimental herpes vaccine.

28 Aug 2017

‘Breakthrough’ leukemia drug also portends ‘quantum leap’ in cost

When doctors talk about a new leukemia drug from Novartis, they ooze enthusiasm, using words like "breakthrough," "revolutionary" and "a watershed moment."

23 Aug 2017

Climbing cost of decades-old drugs threatens to break Medicaid bank

Skyrocketing price tags for new drugs to treat rare diseases have stoked outrage nationwide. But hundreds of old, commonly used drugs cost the Medicaid program billions of extra dollars in 2016 vs. 2015, a Kaiser Health News data analysis shows.

14 Aug 2017

Hospitals slashed use of two heart drugs after huge price hikes

Even before media reports and a congressional hearing vilified Valeant Pharmaceuticals International for raising prices on a pair of lifesaving heart drugs, Dr. Umesh Khot knew something was very wrong.

9 Aug 2017

U-M Injury Center receives CDC funding to find solutions for preventing injuries

An opioid overdose. A concussion on the football field. A fall by an aging parent. A motor vehicle crash by a distracted driver texting.

4 Aug 2017

Band-Aid sized device produces sweat even when patient is relaxed and cool

One downside to medical sensors that test human sweat: you have to sweat. Sweating from exertion or a stifling room temperature can be impractical for some patients and unsafe for others.

4 Aug 2017

Drug puts a $750,000 ‘price tag on life’

Jana Gundy and Amanda Chaffin live within two hours of each other in Oklahoma. Each has a child with the same devastating disease, one that robs them of muscle strength, affecting their ability to sit, stand or even breathe.

2 Aug 2017

Little-known middlemen save money on medicines — but maybe not for you

For the past seven months, the GOP push to replace the Affordable Care Act has consumed Washington. All the while, many consumers continue to be focused on the rising costs of prescription drugs.

2 Aug 2017

Survey explores how Ohio's ED administrators perceive role of state opioid prescribing guidelines

A survey led by a team of researchers at the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center reports that the majority of Ohio's emergency department administrators and physicians are in support of the most recent state guidelines for prescribing opioids, but challenges still exist in implementation.

1 Aug 2017

Study finds sevenfold rise in prescription opioid use among fatally injured drivers

The percentage of fatally injured drivers who tested positive for prescription opioids rose sevenfold from 1 percent in 1995 to over 7 percent in 2015, according to a new study at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The findings appear online in the American Journal of Public Health.

26 Jul 2017

Congress squares off over drug pricing and a controversial drug discount program

House Democrats are calling foul on Republican assertions that cuts to a little-known discount drug program will eventually reduce skyrocketing drug prices.

18 Jul 2017

Study: Team-based primary care model effective in lowering opioid use among chronic pain patients

A new, team-based, primary care model is decreasing prescription opioid use among patients with chronic pain by 40 percent, according to a new study out of Boston Medical Center's Grayken Center for Addiction Medicine, which is published online ahead of print in JAMA Internal Medicine.