prescription drugs

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Medicare Has Been Paying for Prescriptions Written by ... Art Therapists

Paid $31.6M in 2009 for prescriptions written by people who aren't authorized to write them

(Newser) - Massage therapists and home contractors are not authorized to prescribe drugs—but Medicare will still cover the cost, anyway. That's according to a new study by the Department of Health and Human Services, which found Medicare paid $31.6 million in 2009 as part of its Part D program...

Odds Are, You're On Prescription Drugs

Study says 70% of Americans are

(Newser) - Statistically, there's probably something in your medicine cabinet you had to see a doctor to get. Almost 70% of Americans are on at least one prescription drug, and 20% are on five or more, according to a new study from the Mayo Clinic. This represents a fairly recent explosion;...

Can 'Female Viagra' Save Monogamy?

New drugs aim to increase female desire in long-term relationships

(Newser) - Men and women in new relationships generally share equal levels of lust for each other. But as the relationship goes on, for reasons scientists don't fully understand, a woman's desire tends to dive dramatically, while a man's does not. Naturally, the pharmaceutical industry would like to solve...

FDA Blocks Generic OxyContin
  FDA Blocks Generic OxyContin 
Apr 17, 2013 4:01 AM CDT

FDA Blocks Generic OxyContin

Move prevents crushable form returning to market

(Newser) - In a big victory for campaigners against prescription drug abuse—as well as for OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma—the FDA has blocked generic drugmakers from making their own versions of the powerful painkiller. The ruling came on the day that Purdue's patent on the old, crushable, and widely abused...

Meet the Drug That's Powering Wall Street

Prescriptions for Modafinil up 10-fold in decade

(Newser) - Cocaine may no longer be the drug that fuels Wall Street. Instead, traders and start-up entrepreneurs looking to work hard rather than party hard are increasingly turning to a Modafinil—a "smart drug" said to have inspired the film Limitless, in which a writer pops a pill that allows...

India Squashes Novartis Cancer Drug Patent

High court move likely to keep drugs cheap in developing world

(Newser) - A major Supreme Court decision in India could be good news for patients in developing countries, activists say. The court ruled that Novartis couldn't have a new patent for a tuneup to an existing cancer drug, since it's not a new medicine, the AP reports. "Patents will...

Sofa-Treating Chemical Reborn as Major MS Drug

Analyst predicts $1.7B in Tecfidera sales by 2015

(Newser) - As a sofa-treating agent, dimethyl fumarate gave people blisters and rashes, but now it's getting a second chance—as a much ballyhooed multiple sclerosis drug called Tecfidera, whose sales could be enormous. Among doctors, there's "a strong consensus that Tecfidera offers a more favorable clinical profile than...

Fatal Drug ODs Rise 11th Straight Year

Prescription medications at core of problem

(Newser) - Fatal drug overdoses rose for the 11th straight year, federal data show, and most of them were accidents involving addictive painkillers despite growing attention to their risks. "The big picture is that this is a big problem that has gotten much worse quickly," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, head...

NYPD's Plan to Catch Drug Thieves: 'Bait Bottles'

GPS bottles will lead cops to stolen prescription medications

(Newser) - How to fight the theft of prescription medications? New York City police have an idea: Stock pharmacies with fake pill bottles outfitted with GPS trackers. These "bait bottles," if stolen, could then help the NYPD zero in on suspects and their stashes of painkillers and other drugs, the...

Newborns Addicted to Pain Pills Up 300%

Hospitals trying to invent treatment programs

(Newser) - Heartbreaking medical news: Cases of babies born addicted to pain pills are up more than 300% over the past decade, forcing doctors and nurses to invent treatments on the fly, the Wall Street Journal reports. Crying non-stop, vomiting, jerking their limbs, these newborns are the result of America's addiction...

Lack of Cancer Drug Caused 'Shocking' Teen Relapses

Cancer expert slaps 'ridiculous situation'

(Newser) - The dangerous effects of US drug shortages have been made all too clear in a new study. In 2010, sufferers of Hodgkin's lymphoma—who tend to be teenagers—suffered relapses that were likely due to limited supply of mechlorethamine, a generic medication used to treat the cancer. When substitutes...

OB/GYN Group Backs Over-the-Counter Birth Control

But move is unlikely anytime soon

(Newser) - Women shouldn't need a prescription or doctor's exam to buy birth control pills, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists declared yesterday, in a statement that the AP says comes as something of a surprise given that the doctors who make up the organization make a lot of...

That Drug You Want? Sorry, There's Still a Shortage

Nationwide shortfall ultimately hurts 'the little guy'

(Newser) - Why would a paramedic in Ohio not administer morphine to a woman in pain? Because it was his last vial—and he wasn't alone in making such an agonizing decision, the New York Times reports. A nationwide drug shortage is leaving health care workers without a variety of drugs,...

FDA Hastily OKing Risky Drugs
 FDA Hastily OKing Risky Drugs 
experts say
Sep 5, 2012 10:50 AM CDT

FDA Hastily OKing Risky Drugs

...warn experts. But the public may be OK with that

(Newser) - The FDA's commissioner has been touting the agency's speedy approval of new medicines—but it has brought risky drugs to market, according to two drug-safety experts. Specifically, Thomas J. Moore and Curt D. Furberg found problems with cancer drug Caprelsa, multiple sclerosis drug Gilenya, and stroke prevention drug...

Real World Star Joey Kovar Dead at 29

Prescription drug overdose suspected

(Newser) - Reality TV star Joey Kovar was found dead today at 29, the suspected cause a prescription drug overdose, reports E! Online . Kovar was a cast member on Real World: Hollywood in 2008, though he had to leave halfway through to go to rehab for drugs and alcohol, notes TMZ . The...

US Drops Drug Case: It Has ... Too Much Evidence?

Prosecutors: It's too costly to maintain files against doctor on the lam

(Newser) - After nine years of investigating, the US is dropping its case against a Panamanian doctor accused of making bogus sales of prescription drugs—in part because it has amassed too much evidence, the AP reports. The feds have collected two terabytes of electronic data and 440,000 documents on Armando...

Antidepressants: Identity Killers for Teens?

Katherine Sharpe: Young people forgetting how to feel 'like themselves'

(Newser) - Our growing interest in medicating children has created a scary subgroup of adolescents: those who "have known themselves longer on medication than off it," writes Katherine Sharpe in the Wall Street Journal . Sharpe, herself a former antidepressant user, says such prescriptions raise "tough questions ... for adolescents whose...

Behind Derek Boogaard's Downfall, Tons of Pills

Team doctors prescribed him huge amount of hydrocodone, oxycodone

(Newser) - As if Derek Boogaard's death at 28 last year wasn't tragic enough, the New York Times today delves into the reality that preceded the NHL enforcer's accidental overdose—and it's a mind-bogglingly pill-filled one. Boogaard's father, a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, gave...

Number of Opiate-Addicted Newborns Triples

Prescription drug abuse by pregnant women rises sharply

(Newser) - The number of pregnant women abusing prescription drugs has soared, and babies addicted to opiates are now being born at the rate of one every hour in the US, a new study warns. Researchers found that the newborn addiction rate has tripled over the last decade, and the newborns spent...

Welcome to 'Ground Zero' for America's Pill Poppers

Kermit, West Virginia, home to die-hard addicts

(Newser) - A tiny coal-mining town of barely 300 people and no supermarket is home to one booming business: pharmacies. In Kermit, West Virginia, two Sav-Rites alone moved 3.2 million doses of hydrocodone in 2006—a tad more than the 97,000 doses the average pharmacy sells in a year, reports...

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