Pharmaceuticals

AIDS activist group ACT UP organized numerous protests on Wall Street in the 1980s. The group's tactics helped speed the process of finding an effective treatment for AIDS.

Health & Safety

How To Demand A Medical Breakthrough: Lessons From The AIDS Fight

8:39am February 09, 2019

by Nurith Aizenman

When the AIDS crisis started in the 1980s, the official response was tepid. Then activists channeled their anger into into one of the most effective protest movements in recent history.

A team of researchers in Boston has developed an insulin-delivery system that injects the medicine directly into the stomach wall, which is painless.

Avoiding The Ouch: Scientists Are Working On Ways To Swap The Needle For A Pill

10:55pm February 07, 2019

by Joe Palca

A lot of vaccines and some medications need to be delivered by injection. Two groups of researchers are designing ways of delivering these medications by putting them in pill form.

Queue Listen Now

Combining some common antidepressants and opioids can undercut the relief of the painkillers.

Health & Safety

Antidepressants Can Interfere With Pain Relief Of Common Opioids

2:20pm February 06, 2019

by Jonathan Lambert

Some antidepressants inhibit a liver enzyme that converts common opioids into their active form. The interaction may reduce the effectiveness of certain opioids for people taking both medicines.

Loretta Boesing, of Park Hills, Mo., with her son Wesley, who underwent a liver transplant in 2012. Boesing worried the potency of her son's anti-rejection medicine could have been affected by the extremely hot weather when it was delivered.

Health & Safety

Extreme Temperatures May Pose Risks To Some Mail-Order Meds

4:58am January 07, 2019

by Alex Smith

Loretta Boesing is on a mission to make sure prescription drugs delivered by mail are safe and effective. The life of her son — and others who order medicine by mail — could depend on it, she says.

Queue Listen Now

The "Medicaid Drug Decisions Transparency Act" would require pharmaceutical companies to disclose their payments to pharmacists and others who serve on state Medicaid drug boards — the advisory groups that decide which drugs Medicaid will and won't cove

Sen. Cory Booker Calls For More Transparency In Medicaid Drug Decisions

8:47pm December 17, 2018

by Liz Whyte

Booker is introducing a bill this week in response to an investigation by the Center for Public Interest and NPR. He calls drug firms' infiltration into Medicaid's decision process "nefarious."

Atorvastatin, the generic form of Lipitor, can reduce the chances of heart attacks and strokes in people at risk. Side effects, such as muscle pain, are uncommon but should be part of the conversation about starting the medicines, a study concludes.

Health & Safety

Before Starting A Statin, Talk It Over With Your Doctor

10:24am December 04, 2018

by Richard Harris

Patients and doctors should have nuanced conversations about the benefits and risks of statins before deciding to start them. The drugs can reduce heart attack odds but also carry some side effects.

Queue Listen Now

The Food and Drug Administration has seen a sharp increase in applications for drug to treat rare diseases. An oversight report found problems with how agency is handling them.

Health & Safety

FDA Faulted For Lapses In Orphan Drug Program

4:07pm November 30, 2018

The Government Accountability Office found breakdowns in the way the Food and Drug Administration evaluates drugs for rare diseases. The analysis came after an investigation by Kaiser Health News.

Purdue Pharma, maker of the opioid OxyContin, has a subsidiary that won a patent for a treatment for opioid addiction.

Health & Safety

Drugmakers Play The Patent Game To Lock In Prices, Block Competitors

11:02am September 28, 2018

by Sarah Jane Tribble

Pharmaceutical companies like Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, often win patents for incremental changes with debatable value. Now there's a twist involving an opioid addiction treatment.

Health insurers who offer Medicare Advantage plans have permission to soon require patients to try less expensive alternatives to some before receiving pricier drugs.

Health & Safety

New Medicare Advantage Tool To Control Drug Prices Could Narrow Choices

3:19pm September 13, 2018

by Susan Jaffe

Federal officials will allow private Medicare insurance plans to require patients who are candidates for certain expensive drugs to try cheaper drugs first.

Massachusetts wanted to negotiate prices and stop the use of some of the most expensive drugs in its Medicaid program. The federal government said no.

Health & Safety

A Setback For Massachusetts In States' Drive To Contain Medicaid Drug Spending

5:39pm September 12, 2018

by Martha Bebinger

Massachusetts planned to exclude expensive drugs that weren't proven to work better than existing alternatives from its Medicaid plan. Medicaid drug spending had doubled in five years.