Attorney General Maura Healey announced a massive drug bust just a day after co-penning an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal with Gov. Charlie Baker about the opioid crisis and her lawsuit against Purdue Pharmaceuticals. Healey’s office called Thursday’s announcement of drug busts in Methuen and Lawrence the largest drug takedown in the state’s history, […]
Drugs
Posted inUncategorized
Fighting opioids in the court and streets
ATTORNEY GENERAL MAURA HEALEY announced a massive drug bust just a day after co-penning an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal with Gov. Charlie Baker about the opioid crisis and her lawsuit against Purdue Pharmaceuticals. Healey’s office called Thursday’s announcement of drug busts in Methuen and Lawrence the largest drug takedown in the state’s history, […]
Posted inHealth Care, State House News Service
Healey, Baker respond to Purdue in joint letter
THREE WEEKS AFTER the chairman of Purdue Pharma argued in the pages of the Wall Street Journal against states suing his company to hold it responsible for the opioid crisis, Gov. Charlie Baker and Attorney General Maura Healey responded in the same newspaper. The Republican governor and Democratic attorney general wrote a letter to the editor published […]
Posted inOpinion
MassBIO’s drug pricing concerns don’t add up
ONE OF THE MORE PUZZLING arguments the Massachusetts biopharma industry is putting forward during the Beacon Hill debate over Medicaid drug pricing is that innovative drugs won’t be developed and the state economy will suffer if the approach favored by Gov. Charlie Baker and the Senate becomes law. The argument is simply poppycock. The reality […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Time to rein in prescription drug costs
WHEN MICHELLE KATS was diagnosed with diabetes in 2001, her parents would stay in her room at night and check her blood sugar to make sure it was not too low or too high. Now it’s the rising cost of insulin that keeps Michelle and her family up at night. Although Michelle currently has insurance […]
Posted inUncategorized
Health panel wants to open ‘black box’ of drug brokers
A QUASI-INDEPENDENT state agency tasked with monitoring the health care marketplace has made a foray into the debate over pharmacy benefits managers, calling for more transparency about the role the companies play in setting the cost of drugs. Pharmacy benefits managers act as a broker between insurers or government on the one side, and drug […]
Posted inHealth Care
RFK, Jr.’s anti-vaccine campaign is reckless and wrong — say three Kennedys
OF ALL THE WRINKLES in the emerging measles crisis and spotlight it has put on families who have caused the outbreak by refusing to vaccinate their children, the most curious has been the leading role of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The third child and namesake of Robert Kennedy has spent years promoting the debunked idea […]
Posted inUncategorized
Senate budget stirs ire of MassBIO with drug pricing proposal
SENATE LEADERS are proposing two ways to reduce the ballooning cost of pharmaceuticals used by Medicaid patients, but an industry group claims one of the ideas is “radical” and “unproven.” “Over the past five years, MassHealth pharmacy spending has doubled from $1.1 billion to $2.2 billion – twice the growth of other MassHealth spending,” Senate […]
Posted inEconomy
Coughlin changes hats at hearing on drug pricing
AT A PACKED STATE HOUSE hearing Thursday on legislation to rein in the cost of pharmaceuticals, MassBIO CEO Robert Coughlin and two of his national colleagues were pitching the same argument they’ve been using for a long time – that any form of price control would jeopardize a thriving local industry and hinder the development […]
Posted inHealth Care
NJ doc disciplined for prescription scam
A correction has been added to this story. THE STATE BOARD OF REGISTRATION in Medicine has disciplined a New Jersey-based physician for prescribing prescription drugs over the internet without ever having examined his patients. The physician, 64-year-old Robi Rosenfeld, was part of a network set up to market pain creams, according to a consent order […]