U.S. health authorities say an herbal supplement promoted as an alternative pain remedy contains the same chemicals found in opioids, the addictive family of drugs at the center of a national addiction crisis. The Food and Drug Administration analysis, published Tuesday, makes it more likely that the supplement, kratom, could be banned by the federal…
U.S. Officials Seek Packaging Fix For Diarrhea-Drug Abuse
U.S. health regulators on Tuesday asked makers of popular anti-diarrhea drugs to sell their medications in smaller amounts to make them harder to abuse. The request comes amid a spike in overdoses from large doses of the over-the-counter drugs, which contain a small amount of an opioid. The Food and Drug Administration wants manufacturers to…
Do e-Cigarettes Help Or Harm? Report Says Not Clear Yet
Electronic cigarettes could be a boon to public health or a major liability, depending on whether they help Americans quit smoking or encourage more young people to try traditional cigarettes, a new report concludes. The report issued Tuesday wrestles with the potential benefits and harms of the vapor-emitting devices which have been sold in the…
Anti-Smoking Plan May Kill Cigarettes—And Save Big Tobacco
Imagine if cigarettes were no longer addictive and smoking itself became almost obsolete; only a tiny segment of Americans still lit up. That’s the goal of an unprecedented anti-smoking plan being carefully fashioned by U.S. health officials. But the proposal from the Food and Drug Administration could have another unexpected effect: opening the door for…
US Health Officials To Target High-Risk Alternative Remedies
U.S. health officials plan to crack down on a growing number of unproven alternative remedies, focusing on products containing dangerous ingredients that have occasionally been linked to serious injury and death. The Food and Drug Administration on Monday issued a new proposal for regulating homeopathic medicines that have long been on the fringe of mainstream…
U.S. Approves Monthly Injection For Opioid Addiction
U.S. health officials on Thursday approved the first injectable form of the leading medication to treat patients recovering from addiction to heroin, prescription painkillers, and other opioids. The Food and Drug Administration approved once-a-month Sublocade for adults with opioid use disorder who are already stabilized on addiction medication. The monthly injection has the potential to…
U.S. Health Agency To Crack Down On Risky Stem Cell Offerings
U.S. health authorities announced plans Thursday to crack down on doctors pushing stem cell procedures that pose the gravest risks to patients amid an effort to police a burgeoning medical field that previously has received little oversight. The Food and Drug Administration laid out a strategy for regulating cell-based medicine, including hundreds of private clinics…
FDA Warns Of Injury, Death With Herbal Supplement Kratom
Federal health authorities are warning about reports of injury, addiction, and death with a herbal supplement that has been promoted as an alternative to opioid painkillers and other prescription drugs. The supplement, kratom, made from a plant native to Southeast Asia, has gained popularity in the U.S. as a treatment for pain, anxiety and drug…
FDA Advisers Endorse Gene Therapy To Treat Form Of Blindness
A potentially groundbreaking treatment for a rare form of blindness moved one step closer to U.S. approval Thursday, as federal health advisers endorsed the experimental gene therapy for patients with an inherited condition that gradually destroys eyesight. The panel experts to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously in favor of Spark Therapeutics’ injectable therapy,…
Senators Urge Action to Block Drastic Drug Price Hikes
Angered by skyrocketing drug prices, a pair of senators on Wednesday urged Congress to block companies from cornering the market on old, off-patent drugs. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., released findings from a year-long investigation into companies like Turing Pharmaceuticals, which generated national outrage last year after hiking the price of a life-saving anti-infection drug by more…