Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Suicide Accounts For Far Fewer Opioid Overdose Deaths Than Previously Thought, Research Finds
Accidental overdoses cause 90% of all U.S. opioid-related deaths while suicides account for far fewer of these fatalities than previously thought, a new analysis published Tuesday suggests. Rising use of heroin and illicit, highly potent synthetic opioids including fentanyl has likely contributed to the unintentional death rate, which surged nine-fold between 2000 and 2017, the researchers said. Opioid suicides also went up during that time but their share of all opioid-related deaths shrank. (12/17)
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma shouldn't give its CEO a bonus next year as the company goes through bankruptcy and tries to settle 2,700 lawsuits over the opioid crisis, 11 U.S. senators said in a letter Tuesday. A bankruptcy judge approved the company's plan to award bonuses to other employees earlier this month, but delayed a decision on whether CEO Craig Landau should receive an expected $1.3 million next year. (12/17)
Michigan on Tuesday sued four companies over the deadly painkiller epidemic, becoming what state Attorney General Dana Nessel said is the first state to sue major opioid distributors under a liability law that is typically used to go after drug dealers. The lawsuit was filed in Wayne County and names as defendants AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, McKesson and Walgreens, which have also been sued in other states. (12/17)
[David] Fowler, the long-serving and well-regarded chief medical examiner, told The Baltimore Sun last month he planned to leave. He鈥檇 been in the position for 17 years and said the opioid crisis factored in his decision to leave. The record overdose deaths, more than 200 a month in Maryland, as well as record homicides have taken a toll on Fowler and the staff, he said. The office performed so many autopsies that it risked losing its national accreditation in 2017, a vital rating for prosecutors and source of faith in the findings for the public. (Cohn, 12/17)
A former physician assistant for a Utah minor league hockey team who continued to prescribe hundreds of Percocet pills to an ex-player was sentenced Tuesday in Portland to three years of supervised release after serving 47 days in jail. Oscar Johnson, 64, had worked as a health care provider for the Utah Grizzlies and began prescribing pills to help player Jordan Hart with a shoulder injury between 2007 and 2009. (Bernstein, 12/17)
