�Թϲ�����

The company whose drugs are at the center of America's deadly opioid epidemic was given a green light Wednesday to accelerate the development of a new opioid antidote. The US Food and Drug Administration granted Purdue Pharma's experimental opioid overdose drug fast-track designation. According to Purdue, its drug, nalmefene hydrochloride injection, has a longer effect than naloxone, another opioid antagonist that is approved to reverse overdoses. The FDA's fast-track designation facilitates the development and expedites the review of drugs that treat serious conditions and fill an unmet medical need. (Kounang, 3/14)

Nurses who helped administer excessive and possibly fatal painkillers to dozens of Ohio hospital patients should have questioned an intensive-care doctor's order for those high doses, the state attorney general said Thursday. Officials are pursuing potential discipline against 25 nurses who worked in the Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System with the doctor, William Husel, who was fired in December. (3/14)

Ten men who have been ordered into treatment for addiction filed suit Thursday against several state agencies, alleging that they are unlawfully being held in a prison instead of a treatment facility. The plaintiffs are among the roughly 3,000 men each year who have not been charged with a crime but are civilly committed for addiction treatment in Massachusetts. (Freyer, 3/14)

Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri and a bipartisan group of co-sponsors are pushing to extend a federal pilot program that mental health professionals say has transformed the way they deal with people suffering from behavioral health and addiction crises. ... But federal support for the “Excellence in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Expansion Act” begins running out in April for two states, and in July for Missouri and five other states that are part of a $1 billion pilot project. (Raasch, 3/14)