• How a powerful corporate consulting firm helped create the opioid epidemic

    How a powerful corporate consulting firm helped create the opioid epidemic

    Feb 10, 2021 11:25 PM EST

    ... the more egregious tactics that the complaint alleges was proposed by McKinsey consultants was giving the idea to give rebates to pharmacies when their customers overdosed on OxyContin. Now, there's no evidence that that was actually enacted, but, Madam Attorney General, what does that tell you about these entities ...

  • News Wrap: Smartmatic files suit against Fox News, Trump’s lawyers over election claims

    News Wrap: Smartmatic files suit against Fox News, Trump’s lawyers over election claims

    Feb 04, 2021 11:45 PM EST

    ... also sued Giuliani and Powell. A consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, has agreed to pay almost $600 million for boosting U.S. opioid sales as overdoses surged. Court documents showed McKinsey worked closely with Purdue Pharma to market more OxyContin. McKinsey says that it has reached agreements with every state ...

  • McKinsey & Company agrees to pay nearly $600 million over opioid crisis

    McKinsey & Company agrees to pay nearly $600 million over opioid crisis

    Feb 04, 2021 07:57 PM EST

    ... and McKinsey's fees all skyrocketed," said Stein, whose state stands to receive nearly $19 million in the settlement. "But so did the number of overdoses." Stein said the settlement funds could go toward addiction treatment in health care settings, as well as in jails, plus programs like needle exchanges ...

  • The data behind 9 big challenges facing Biden

    The data behind 9 big challenges facing Biden

    Jan 22, 2021 10:12 PM EST

    ... estimate that is likely an undercount — compared to 2,815 deaths in the same amount of time before the pandemic. Washington, D.C., saw drug overdose deaths increase nearly 60 percent — the largest change in the country. While drug overdose deaths began to rise prior to the COVID-19 pandemic ...

  • Sheldon Adelson, casino mogul and GOP power broker, dies

    Sheldon Adelson, casino mogul and GOP power broker, dies

    Jan 12, 2021 02:04 PM EST

    ... committed to the research and treatment of substance abuse, a personal cause for Sheldon Adelson. His son Mitchell, from his first marriage, died of an overdose in 2005. (Sheldon Adelson would spend millions opposing state efforts to legalize marijuana). Sheldon Garry Adelson was born in 1933, in the Dorchester neighborhood ...

  • Biden’s most daunting challenges, according to public health experts

    Biden’s most daunting challenges, according to public health experts

    Jan 05, 2021 09:34 PM EST

    ... dilemmas has been compromised because of the pandemic, she said, pointing to a recent report from the CDC that showed a historic rise in drug overdose deaths between May 2019 and May 2020. “There are all these ongoing health issues that have not gone away with the coronavirus, and if ...

  • 2020 was a year of loss. Here are some of the well-known figures who died

    2020 was a year of loss. Here are some of the well-known figures who died

    Dec 31, 2020 06:42 PM EST

    ... was found liable in the death of his ex-partner, Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of singers Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown. Jan. 1. Heroin overdose. Don Larsen, 90. The journeyman pitcher who reached the heights of baseball glory when he threw a perfect game in 1956 with the New ...

  • 2020 in review: Stories you may have missed and why they matter

    2020 in review: Stories you may have missed and why they matter

    Dec 27, 2020 11:17 PM EST

    ... guilty to three criminal charges for its role in the opioid epidemic that has ravaged the United States in recent years, including impeding efforts to combat the addiction issues. The ongoing drug overdose crisis has killed over 470,000 Americans in the last two decades.  Michigan Governor Whitmer kidnapping plot 

  • U.S. deaths in 2020 top 3 million

    U.S. deaths in 2020 top 3 million

    Dec 22, 2020 06:31 PM EST

    ... Suicide deaths dropped in 2019 compared with 2018, but early information suggests they have not continued to drop this year, Anderson and others said. Drug overdose deaths, meanwhile, got much worse. Before the coronavirus even arrived, the U.S. was in the midst of the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in ...

  • News Wrap: FDA panel backs Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use

    News Wrap: FDA panel backs Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use

    Dec 17, 2020 11:45 PM EST

    ... Purdue Pharma has admitted criminal wrongdoing and will pay $8 billion in fines. The Sacklers do not face criminal prosecution.The CDC reports that drug overdose deaths in the U.S. topped 81,000 in the 12 months ending last May. That's a record, and it's getting worse ...