• News Wrap: WHO declares novel coronavirus a global health emergency

    News Wrap: WHO declares novel coronavirus a global health emergency

    Jan 30, 2020 11:50 PM EDT

    ... in 2018 are likely to live about 78 years and eight months. The slight increase is due largely to declining deaths from cancer and drug overdoses. The Trump administration moved today to reshape Medicaid and curb federal spending on the program for the first time. The plan allows for converting ...

  • For 1st time in 4 years, U.S. life expectancy rises, but only a little

    For 1st time in 4 years, U.S. life expectancy rises, but only a little

    Jan 30, 2020 07:32 PM EDT

    ... not an additional increase is encouraging." The national decline was driven by dips in 14 states, the CDC's Anderson said. Those include states where overdose deaths have been most common, like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and West Virginia. In Ohio's Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, overdose deaths fell in ...

  • 18-year-old singer Billie Eilish sweeps the Grammy Awards

    18-year-old singer Billie Eilish sweeps the Grammy Awards

    Jan 27, 2020 04:39 PM EDT

    ... was Tyler, the Creator bringing his tearful mother onstage with him to accept his Grammy. Singer Demi Lovato made a comeback appearance after her reported overdose, singing a song she said was written in the troubled days before that event. Camila Cabello sang "First Man," a song dedicated to her ...

  • Drug company executives face prison time for role in opioid epidemic

    Drug company executives face prison time for role in opioid epidemic

    Jan 24, 2020 11:40 PM EDT

    ... quote -- "through bribes and fraud." Beyond Insys, there are several thousand ongoing criminal and civil cases against other pharmaceutical companies and distributors, and 130 Americans overdose every day from opioids. That shows no sign of slowing down, for now. Yesterday, CEO John Kapoor was sentenced to 5.5 years in ...

  • Opioid victims can begin filing claims against Purdue Pharma

    Opioid victims can begin filing claims against Purdue Pharma

    Jan 24, 2020 10:34 PM EDT

    ... including OxyContin, during a series of surgeries when he was 13 and 14 years old. He died in 2017 at age 21 of a heroin overdose after years of rehab and relapses. His mother is now on a committee of victims seeking input in the process. "I spent my whole ...

  • Andrew Yang makes a case for the ‘freedom dividend’

    Andrew Yang makes a case for the ‘freedom dividend’

    Dec 22, 2019 10:17 PM EDT

    ... for president? Andrew Yang: What I would say to Americans is, look, record highs in this country right now -- stress, financial insecurity, depression, suicides, drug overdoses, student loan debt. And they sense this. They feel it. When they see the headline stat on the TV screen, they're not saying ...

  • 700 new moms die each year in the U.S. Could Medicaid help?

    700 new moms die each year in the U.S. Could Medicaid help?

    Dec 12, 2019 09:09 PM EDT

    According to CDC data, a third of preventable maternal deaths happen up to 365 days after childbirth, she said. If not directly related to pregnancy complications, these deaths could occur for a variety of reasons -- after a mother loses treatment for opioid use disorder, relapses and overdoses, or from a ...

  • News Wrap: Major storms disrupt Thanksgiving travel

    News Wrap: Major storms disrupt Thanksgiving travel

    Nov 27, 2019 11:55 PM EDT

    ... facing a federal criminal investigation. The Wall Street Journal and others report that the focus is their role in the epidemic of opioid addiction and overdoses. The drugmakers include Amneal, Johnson & Johnson, Mallinckrodt, and Teva, along with distributors AmerisourceBergen and McKesson.On Wall Street today, major indexes finished at ...

  • Trump donates his 3rd-quarter salary to fight the opioid epidemic

    Trump donates his 3rd-quarter salary to fight the opioid epidemic

    Nov 26, 2019 11:17 AM EDT

    ... against the opioid crisis.” Trump has made tackling the misuse of opioids an administration priority. More than 70,000 Americans died in 2017 from drug overdoses, the bulk of them involving opioids. Trump is required to be paid, but he has pledged to donate his salary while in office to ...

  • Oklahoma judge reduces J&J order in opioid lawsuit by $107 million

    Oklahoma judge reduces J&J order in opioid lawsuit by $107 million

    Nov 15, 2019 09:58 PM EDT

    ... aggressive and misleading marketing campaign that overstated how effective the drugs were for treating chronic pain and understated the risk of addiction. Hunter says opioid overdoses killed 4,653 people in the state from 2007 to 2017. Attorneys for the state have argued abating the opioid crisis in Oklahoma would ...