CVS and Walmart reached a $147.5 million opioid settlement with West Virginia. “These settlements won’t bring back the lives lost from the opioid epidemic, but these and other settlements will hopefully provide significant help to those affected the most by this crisis in our state,” said West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. (NBC News)
Political analysts are wondering whether President Biden’s passage of drug pricing legislation will be enough to sway senior voters in the midterm elections. The pharmaceutical part of the Inflation Reduction Act requires the federal government to start negotiating for some expensive drugs covered under Medicare – but not until 2026, and only with 10 retail prescription drugs that year. (The Guardian)
Juul sued the Food and Drug Administration over documents supporting e-cigarette ban. In June, The agency ordered the company to take its e-cigarettes off the shelves in the U.S. market amid a push to cap nicotine in cigarettes. (Axios)
Fake adderall pills laced with meth seized in Rhode Island. Federal authorities discovered a pill mill of “staggering” proportions amid a nationwide shortage of the ADHD medicine. (USA Today)
The Food and Drug Administration is poised to approve a new drug for ALS, but stakeholders are asking if it works. It’s still not clear whether the drug, called AMX0035, truly helps people with ALS, a rare and fatal neurological disorder that eventually leaves a person unable to walk, talk, swallow and breathe. (NPR)
