You're Pregnant. What Do You Know About the Meds?
Testing prescription drugs on pregnant women is controversial. It's also utterly necessary if we care about the health of both mother and child.
Prescription Drugs
The Filmmaker Taking on Prescription Drugs
The director of a new documentary about America's prescription drug epidemic talks Big Pharma and opens up about personal struggles with pill addiction.
Are Doctors Careful Enough With Off-Label Prescriptions?
Too often, doctors aren't using sound science when they prescribe a drug for unapproved uses, a new study finds.
Fraud Still Plagues Medicare's Prescription Drug Program
Medicare has increased oversight of its prescription drug program but many holes remain, allowing fraud and abuse to proliferate. Questionable practices were found at 1,400 pharmacies, which collectively billed Medicare $2.3 billion in 2014.
The Cost of a Cure
Medicare’s spending on drugs to treat hepatitis C soared more than 15-fold from 2013 to 2014 as new breakthroughs came to the market, according to previously undisclosed federal data. The drugs cure the disease, but taxpayers are footing the bill.
Prescription Painkiller Abuse Linked With Heroin
As states crack down hard on pain prescriptions, some are seeing a resurgence in abuse of the harder stuff.
Medicare Finally Tightens the Reins on Its Drug Program
Medicare gives itself the power to ban physicians if they prescribe medications in abusive ways.
Medicare's Drug Program Needs Stronger Protections Against Fraud
A new report finds that more than half of insurance companies in Medicare’s drug program haven’t reported fraud cases to the government. The findings echo an earlier investigation that found fraud flourishing in the program.
To Go After Doctors, We Need a Definition for 'Abusive' Prescribing
As Medicare considers banning doctors who pose a “threat to the health or safety” of patients, it plans to consider an array of factors.
What’s Really Behind America’s Suicide Epidemic?
The means—prescription drugs, access to firearms, bridges without prevention methods—play a much bigger role than any emotions or thought processes.
In a Major Shift, Medicare Seeks Power to Ban Harmful Prescribers
Action follows ProPublica’s investigative series detailing inappropriate and wasteful prescribing and fraud in the nation’s biggest prescription drug program.
Fraud Rx: Medicare Makes Moves to Tighten Oversight of Dirty Doctors
Action comes after ProPublica uses the government’s own data to find patterns of dangerous prescribing, waste, and potential fraud in Medicare Part D.
How Fraud Flourishes in Medicare's Drug Plan
The federal government does little to stop schemers from stealing from Medicare Part D, the program that provides prescription drugs to more than 36 million seniors and disabled people.
Late Nights, Long Drives, and Too Much Speed
New research on the why and when of truckers abusing drugs.
The Bitterest Pill: Maybe China Isn’t Counterfeiting Drugs
After a May report finding a third of the malaria pills inspected in Asia and Africa were counterfeit, observers piled on pharmaceutical companies in India and China as likely bad guys. But the truth is a little harder to swallow.
New Statin Warnings Include Brain-Related Effects
The cholesterol-reducing drugs known as statins are popular, but the FDA wants Americans to know there are some side effects.
Do You Know Where Your Medicine Came From?
Here's look at where the stuff in your medicine cabinet was manufactured. Just don’t ask if these foreign-made drugs are safe, because in many cases, it’s impossible to say.
Ritalin Can Wake the Brain From Anesthesia
Researchers propose pulling patients out of anesthesia with "a shot of adrenaline to the brain."
Statins' Link to Neuromuscular Disease Questioned
The cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have proved remarkably popular, but might they contribute in a few cases to debilitating neuromuscular disease?
Statin Cholesterol Drug Warnings Grow Louder
New research suggests previous studies supporting widespread use of cholesterol-lowering drugs is flawed.
The Cocktail Napkin -- A Scientist and Ewe Walk Into a Bar ...
It's no joke: Researchers give Viagra to pregnant sheep and find that the drug boosts vital nutrients needed for fetal development.
Jackson Case Highlights Medical Ethics
Two prominent doctors in the field of pain management reflect on the malign influence of celebrity.
A New Drug to Fight Portal Hypertension?
The drug sorafenib — already approved in several countries for treatment of kidney and liver cancer — dramatically improves the health of rats with liver cirrhosis and advanced portal hypertension.