Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
At Height Of Opioid Crisis, Manufacturers' Reps Visited New York Doctors' Offices Almost Daily To Push Sales
Purdue Pharma’s sales force swept through New York State, visiting doctors and pharmacies nearly half a million times between 2006 and 2017 to promote OxyContin and other opioid painkillers. That is roughly 160 sales stops in the state each weekday during the height of the nation’s addiction crisis. The company’s flood-the-zone sales strategy was among the new disclosures contained in court papers filed on Thursday by Attorney General Letitia James of New York as part of the office’s lawsuit against opioid manufacturers, distributors and eight members of the Sackler family, who control Purdue. (Rashbaum, Rabin and Hakim, 4/11)
An Oklahoma judge has ruled that he, not a jury, will decide the state's case against several drug manufacturers for their alleged role in the nation's deadly opioid crisis. The attorney general's office says Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman made the decision at Thursday's hearing that a jury won't hear the case. At least one of the defendants, Johnson & Johnson, had sought a jury trial. (4/11)
The Justice Department on Thursday retreated from guidelines that allowed federal funding to go to drug courts that prohibit the use of addiction medication. A Bureau of Justice Assistance grant announcement earlier this year rolled back an Obama administration policy that cut off funding to those courts that denied entry to people on medication assisted treatment. (Ehley, 4/11)
And in other news —
U.S. health officials say overdose deaths involving the herbal supplement kratom are more common than previously reported. A government report released Thursday said kratom was a cause in 91 overdose deaths in 27 states. Officials previously said they knew of 44 nationally. Most who died had also taken heroin, fentanyl or other drugs. But kratom was the only substance detected in seven of the deaths. (Stobbe, 4/11)
Kratom – a plant grown naturally in Southeast Asia and often sold in powder capsules – was a cause of death in 91 overdoses in the United States from July 2016 to December 2017, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In seven of the overdoses, kratom was the only substance to test positive in a toxicology report, though the CDC says other substances couldn't be ruled out. (Miller, 4/11)
