The gleaming white booth towered over the medical conference in Italy in October, advertising a new brand of antidote for opioid overdoses. “Be prepared. Get naloxone. Save a life,” the slogan on its walls said. Some conference attendees were stunned when they saw the company logo: Mundipharma, the international affiliate...
After Bankruptcy Filing, Purdue Pharma May Not Be off Hook
Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy in the first step in a complex, multibillion-dollar plan by the maker of OxyContin to settle thousands of lawsuits brought against it by state and local governments over the nation's deadly opioid disaster. The company and members of the Sackler family, which owns it, expressed...
A Clovis Unified Trustee Will Retire in 2020. Who Wants the Seat?
Brian Heryford, a fixture on the Clovis Unified School District Board of Trustees since 1996, won't run for reelection in 2020. Instead, the insurance brokerage owner and community leader says he will pull up stakes and retire in Washington state. "My journey is ending," said Heryford, who is board president....
5 States Announce New Suits Over Prescription Opioids
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Five state attorneys general announced lawsuits Thursday seeking to hold the drug industry responsible for an opioid addiction crisis that has become the biggest cause of accidental deaths across the country and in many states. The new filings in Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, West Virginia and Wisconsin mean...
Pharmaceutical Exec Guilty of Bribing Doctors to Push Opioid
BOSTON — A pharmaceutical company founder accused of paying doctors millions in bribes to prescribe a highly addictive fentanyl spray was convicted Thursday in a case that exposed such marketing tactics as using a stripper-turned-sales-rep to give a physician a lap dance. John Kapoor, the 76-year-old former chairman of Insys...
Many Blame Drug Firms for Opioid Crisis
NEW YORK — About two-thirds of Americans believe drug companies are to blame for the opioid crisis, although nearly as many hold drug users themselves responsible, a new poll finds. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll showed many people also fault doctors who prescribed opioid pain pills...
Madera Pharmacist Arrested on Opioid Trafficking Charges
A Madera pharmacist and two Fresno men were arrested Tuesday for allegedly engaging in a conspiracy to distribute the opioids oxycodone and hydrocodone, according to federal officials. The arrests followed a 42-count federal grand jury indictment on April 11. The three men arrested and charged with possession and conspiracy to...
Anti-Opioid Addiction Drug Maker Charged With Fraud
RICHMOND, Va. — Federal prosecutors say the company that makes a drug meant to curb opioid addiction has been lying for years about the relative safety of its product. Prosecutors in Virginia filed fraud charges Tuesday against British-based Indivior, which makes Suboxone film strips that dissolve under the tongue and...
Deadly Blue 'Mexican Oxy' Pills Take Toll on US Southwest
TUCSON, Ariz. — Aaron Francisco Chavez swallowed at least one of the sky blue pills at a Halloween party before falling asleep forever. He became yet another victim killed by a flood of illicit fentanyl smuggled from Mexico by the Sinaloa cartel into the Southwest — a profitable new business...