Lenny Bernstein –

Demetra Ashley, acting assistant administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Dec. 12, 2017, that the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act should be revised. "The DEA, along with the Department of Justice, believes that has to change," Ashley said.

The new law supported by opioid makers that Jeff Sessions, 44 states and a top DEA official want changed

August 22, 2019 at 2:01 a.m.

A new law supported by opioid distributors and manufacturers is making it increasingly difficult to hold companies accountable when they run afoul of the nation's drug laws, according to recently...

The United States is divided into 11 regions for liver distribution.

Who deserves a liver? Officials try to make organ transplants fairer

June 2, 2018 at 3:41 p.m.

His belly swollen, his energy flagging, 45-year-old Jorge Perez Remache waits in his Queens, New York, apartment for word that his turn has come to receive a lifesaving liver transplant....

Half a million Medicare recipients were prescribed too many opioids last year

June 3, 2018 at 7:10 a.m.

Nearly 70,000 people on Medicare's drug plan received "extreme" amounts of narcotic painkillers in 2016 and more than 22,000 others appeared to be "doctor shopping" for drugs, patterns that put...

Opioid prescriptions dropped for the first time in the modern drug crisis

June 3, 2018 at 10:02 a.m.

The number of prescriptions for opioids written by health care providers declined between 2012 and 2015, the government reported Thursday, introducing a glimmer of progress in efforts to quell the...

Fever during pregnancy may increase autism risk in offspring

June 4, 2018 at 9:28 a.m.

A mother's fever during pregnancy, especially in the second trimester, is associated with a higher risk that her child will be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, researchers reported Tuesday. Three...

On Thursday, June 8, 2017, the FDA said it has asked Endo Pharmaceuticals to stop selling its reformulated, extended-release painkiller, Opana ER.

FDA seeks removal of opioid painkiller from the market

June 4, 2018 at 1:58 p.m.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday asked a drug company to remove its opioid pain medication from the market, the first time the agency has made such a request...

A protein from umbilical cords could revitalize memory in an aging brain

June 5, 2018 at 3:55 a.m.

You leave your car in a vast, crowded parking lot, and when you return, you have no idea where it is. The ensuing search is frustrating, time-consuming and a little...

First-year doctors will be allowed to work 24-hour shifts starting in July

June 5, 2018 at 3:40 p.m.

First-year doctors will be allowed to work 24-hour shifts in hospitals across the United States starting July 1, when a much-debated cap that limits the physicians to 16 consecutive hours...

Your ER doctor could determine your likelihood of long-term opioid use

June 5, 2018 at 10:11 p.m.

Luck may play a role in determining who ends up taking prescription opioids long-term, according to a study released Wednesday that found a link between the prescribing habits of hospital...

Vaccine samples are stored in a freezer in Verulam. Half the study's participants will receive it, while the other half will receive a placebo. Inoculations will begin Monday.

New HIV vaccine trial, the first in years, to begin

August 21, 2019 at 9:04 p.m.

After decades of shadowboxing with the human immunodeficiency virus, researchers were encouraged four years ago when a test of a vaccine on 16,000 people in Thailand turned up a previously...

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