Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State AGs To Investigate Drugmakers' Marketing Of Prescription Painkillers
A bipartisan group of state attorneys general is jointly investigating the marketing of prescription painkillers and the causes of widespread opioid addiction, according to people familiar with the matter, in another sign of growing pressure on the pharmaceutical industry. The probe, which includes a majority of U.S. states, is expected to be publicly announced in the coming days, the people said. The investigation is focused on manufacturers of prescription painkillers, one of the people said, and, like other opioid investigations launched in recent years, will focus on the allegedly deceptive marketing of the drugs. The full range of targets of the investigation isn’t yet clear and could change. (Randazzo and Whalen, 6/14)
Bringing down the rate of HIV infection in one of the United States’ great public health triumphs of the past quarter-century. Now, thanks to the opioid epidemic, some of those hard-won gains may be reversed. Opioids, as well as being harmful on their own, also increase the risk of HIV outbreaks, as users sometimes inject the drugs using shared, infected syringes. That drove a clustered outbreak in Scott County, Indiana, where then-Governor Mike Pence declared a public health emergency in 2015 because of a spate of new HIV infections. (Humphreys, 6/14)
Doctors may be overprescribing opioids to women who have had cesarean sections. Researchers tracked prescriptions and pill use in 179 women discharged from an academic medical center after cesarean delivery. On average, they left the hospital with a prescription for the equivalent of 30 pills containing 5 milligrams of oxycodone or hydrocodone. Then, using interviews, the scientists tracked how much of the medicine they used during the two weeks after discharge. The study is in Obstetrics & Gynecology. (Bakalar, 6/14)
Massachusetts law allows anyone to distribute syringes without approval by local authorities, the state’s highest court ruled Wednesday in a case involving a Hyannis needle exchange. The ruling was hailed by advocates for the eight-year-old Hyannis program, who said the decision would lead to the expansion statewide of a service that saves lives and prevents the spread of disease among injection-drug users — at time when Massachusetts is battling an opioid-addiction crisis. (Freyer, 6/14)
