Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse
Salt Lake County officials announced Monday that the county is gearing up to sue pharmaceutical companies for damages caused by the recklessness and devastation of opioid addiction. They won’t be the first to do so, and it’s about time. In fact, there are over 100 counties across the nation gearing up to recover their costs associated with the epidemic, and many states have already filed.
Read more at The Salt Lake Tribune
The region could potentially establish a mobile health unit to address the current opioid crisis faced by local communities.
Regional council endorsed a plan at its latest meeting to have the health and social services departments investigate “the costs of operating the proposed unit, which would potentially be staffed with outreach, addiction, counselling, medical and health professionals operating in partnership with local health and social service agencies”, with a report to be brought back for 2018 budget deliberations.
Read more at The Oshawa Express
As Canada’s total health spend is expected to reach $242 billion by the end of 2017, the amount spent on drugs is expected to grow at the fastest pace, according to new figures by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
The total projected growth in health spending for 2017 is about four per cent, a slight increase on 2016. Since 2010, the average annual increase has been 3.2 per cent. The total estimated growth of drug spending for the year is 5.2 per cent, followed by growth in physician spending (4.4 per cent) and in hospital spending (2.9 per cent).
Read more at Benefits Canada
Canada’s brand-name pharmaceutical companies are pushing back against a plan to overhaul Canada’s drug-pricing regulator, saying they are keen to forge a compromise that would reduce prices, but not to a degree that could be “crippling” for the industry.
The president of Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC), which represents more than 45 companies, is planning to warn in a speech on Tuesday that her industry could struggle to invest in high-risk innovation, hire top talent and run local clinical trials if companies are forced to slash their prices too deeply, too quickly.
Read more at The Globe and Mail
OTTAWA — The federal Liberal government on Tuesday rolled out the latest phase of its legalized-pot plans: a five-year, $36.4-million campaign to help teach Canadians — especially the younger ones — about the health and safety risks associated with using marijuana.
The money is coming out of a $526-million envelope for marijuana legalization announced in last week’s fall economic update, Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor and Toronto MP Bill Blair, the government’s point man on legalizing pot, told a news conference outside the House of Commons.
Read more at Huffington Post
Alison Steel was only 4½ years old when her mother’s life changed forever.
In 1957, Jean Steel was admitted to Montreal’s Allan Memorial Institute. The once happy and energetic 33-year-old was diagnosed with manic depression and delusional thinking.
In the months that followed, Steel became the victim of CIA-funded brainwashing experiments conducted by Dr. Ewen Cameron. She was kept in a chemically induced sleep for weeks and subjected to rounds of electroshocks, experimental drugs and tape-recorded messages played non-stop.
Read more at CBC News
The CEO of drug giant Insys Therapeutics bribed doctors to prescribe more opioids to patients who didn’t even need them, according to federal authorities who arrested the executive after a raid on Thursday—a major offensive in the battle against America’s opioid epidemic.
John Kapoor, the billionaire founder and CEO, led “a nationwide conspiracy to profit by using bribes and fraud to cause the illegal distribution of a fentanyl spray intended for cancer patients experiencing breakthrough pain,” the Department of Justice said in a statement.
Read more at Newsweek
At the recent Erie Times-News/GoErie.com opioid forum at Mercyhurst University, a grieving mother waited long with her hand raised, before finally standing to have her question heard.
When, she wanted to know, would drug dealers be brought to justice?
This has been a difficult piece of Erie County’s response to the opioid addiction and overdose crisis that in 2017 alone has taken more than 100 lives.
Read more at The Times
Motherisk’s flawed hair-strand tests tainted thousands of child protection cases across Canada, but was every parent who tested positive for drugs or alcohol potentially harmed in some way? How much is that harm is worth? And what’s the best way to determine who should pay?
These are among the complex questions that were debated in a Toronto courtroom this week in the high-stakes battle over the fate of a proposed national class-action seeking millions in damages for families affected by the litany of failings uncovered at the Hospital for Sick Children’s Motherisk Drug Testing Laboratory.
Whether the class-action will proceed is now in the hands of Superior Court Justice Paul Perell, who reserved his ruling on Thursday. His decision will play a key role in shaping what promises to be years of legal wrangling in the fallout from the problems at Motherisk. Already, some 275 plaintiffs are named in a series of individual lawsuits against Sick Kids and the major players at the lab, the court heard.
Read more at Toronto Star
Multiple bills circulating through Congress indicate lawmakers are interested in allowing Americans to import prescription drugs from Canada and other nations, even though that proposal has been strongly criticized by leading members of the law enforcement community.
Sens. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) floated an amendment to the Senate budget bill Wednesday that would allow bills “relating to lowering the cost of prescription drugs in the United States by importing drugs from Canada.” McCain and Klobuchar are coauthors of the “Safe and Affordable Drugs from Canada Act,” which would allow Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies, with some restrictions.
Read more at The Washington Free Beacon