Prescription Drug News and Research

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The money and politics of prescription drugs: What you need to know

If there's one area of health care where Republicans and Democrats might strike a deal, it's prescription drugs.

8 May 2019

Drug industry patents go under Senate Judiciary Committee’s microscope

Congress isn't making much headway in finding a solution to the problem of soaring prescription drug prices, but lawmakers from both parties are tinkering on the edges with legislation that aims to increase competition among drugmakers.

8 May 2019

Researchers develop smart pill bottle to keep drugs safe

Low-cost, stretchy sensors can be assembled inside the lid of a drug container to help monitor patient safety.

6 May 2019

UH College of Pharmacy PREMIER Center aims to tackle prescription drug misuse

For the first time in American history, a person is more likely to die from an accidental opioid overdose than from a car accident.

1 May 2019

Is insulin’s high cost keeping diabetes patients from taking their medicine?

High prescription drug prices are fast becoming a leading political topic, with medications like insulin emerging as a poster child for the issue.

29 Apr 2019

Impact of prescription drug monitoring programs on opioid exposures in children

A new study measures the impact state-run, prescription drug monitoring programs, pain clinic legislation and opioid prescribing guidelines have on opioid exposures among children.

27 Apr 2019

Newsom: California leads on prescription drugs

California regularly portrays itself as a national trendsetter on political issues, and Gov. Gavin Newsom is claiming that title on prescription drugs.

27 Apr 2019

Association insurance pushes on despite court ruling

When the Trump administration in June issued rules making it easier for small employers to band together to buy health insurance, "we started looking immediately," recalled Scott Lyon, a top executive at the Small Business Association of Michigan.

25 Apr 2019

Drug overdoses among adolescents and young adults on the rise

In American adolescents and young adults, death rates from drug poisoning, particularly from opioids, have sharply increased over the last 10 years, according to new research in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

25 Apr 2019

Americans overwhelmingly want federal protections against surprise medical bills

Three-quarters of the public — including a majority of Republicans — want the federal government to protect patients from being stuck with surprise medical invoices after they are unwittingly treated by doctors or medical facilities that are out of their insurance network, a poll released Wednesday found.

24 Apr 2019

Universities join hands to confront opioid problem in the central Appalachian region

Go to Google and type: "leading cause of accidental death in ..." Then type in a state -- any state in central Appalachia -- and hit search. The answer is the same: opioid overdoses and drug poisoning lead the way in fatalities in these states, far above former front-runners, such as car accidents and gun violence.

17 Apr 2019

Mulvaney: Trump brought down drug prices for the first time in 50 years

President Donald Trump announced last month that the GOP will become “the party of health care,” and news reports suggest he intends to make it a top issue in his reelection campaign.

15 Apr 2019

FDA issues safety labeling changes for female sexual dysfunction treatment

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a safety labeling change order to Sprout Pharmaceuticals for their drug, Addyi (flibanserin), that requires the company to revise important safety information that women and their health care professionals need to have when considering use of the drug.

12 Apr 2019

Podcast: KHN’s ‘What the Health’: Still more ‘Medicare-for-all’

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a presidential candidate, unveiled the 2019 version of his "Medicare-for-all" bill this week. But even more than two decades after first proposing a single-payer plan for the U.S., Sanders still has not proposed a way to finance such a major undertaking.

11 Apr 2019

Study finds no statistically significant effect of drug shortages on cancer treatment

For the vast majority of cancer drugs experiencing shortages over a seven-year period, a new USC research study found no statistically significant effect of shortages on chemotherapy treatment.

8 Apr 2019

ACR releases new drug pricing and step therapy position statements

The American College of Rheumatology has released new drug pricing and step therapy position statements that they hope legislators will consider as they continue to explore policy and regulatory options to make drugs more affordable and accessible.

2 Apr 2019

Impact of legalizing cannabis on the opioid crisis

Legislators believe that the passage of cannabis access laws will play a significant role in addressing the ongoing opioid crisis.

26 Mar 2019

UIC scientists identify hidden proteins in bacteria

Scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago have developed a way to identify the beginning of every gene -- known as a translation start site or a start codon -- in bacterial cell DNA with a single experiment and, through this method, they have shown that an individual gene is capable of coding for more than one protein.

21 Mar 2019

Research: Pure omega-3 prescription drug significantly reduces the occurrence of ischemic events

Taking a high dose of icosapent ethyl--a pure and stable prescription form of the omega-3 fatty acid known as EPA--significantly reduces the occurrence of first, subsequent and total ischemic events, including heart attacks, strokes and related deaths, among people at high cardiovascular risk despite already being on statin therapy, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 68th Annual Scientific Session.

19 Mar 2019

Lawmakers united against high drug prices bare partisan teeth

While the high cost of prescription drug prices seems to be a universally agreed-upon trouble spot in the American health system, a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing Thursday showed that Democrats and Republicans are still miles apart on what to do about it.

8 Mar 2019