News tagged with 'Oxycontin'

Purdue Pharma has received approval of a new formulation of OxyContin to cut down on use by drug abusers.

With more than five million people in the US reportedly misusing prescription pain relievers, the FDA is asking drug makers to formulate a risk-management plan for the entire class of opioids to avoid overdose and death.

In Colorado and 15 other states, drugs now kill more people than auto accidents as powerful painkillers, both legal and illegal, are becoming more commonplace.

OxyContin may be reformulated making it more difficult for addicts to dissolve the painkiller in water and inject it for a heroin-like effect. FDA advisors will consider the application Thursday.

Pitchman Billy Mays had cocaine in his system, an autopsy finds, which contributed to the development of heart disease. He also had prescription amounts of painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs.

The doctor who was Michael Jackson's personal physician says he never injected him with the highly addictive Demerol about an hour before his death.  The family wants to know why the doctor failed to sign a death certificate and went missing after Jackson died. 

This report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, indicates that half of high school seniors will have tried a prescription drug for recreational use before they graduate high school. While marijuana and alcohol use has declined, the painkillers Vicodin and OxyContin use has increased among primarily white, middle-class teens.  

New research in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirms the growing dangers posed by the abuse of prescription painkillers and calls on clinicians to help prevent future cases of addiction and overdose.

While use of illegal drugs is down among teenagers, prescription drugs, with a low cost and high availability, are still the first choice for teenagers looking to get high.  A national survey of 67,000 finds that Baby Boomers are increasingly using illicit prescription drugs as they age.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked pharmaceutical maker Purdue Pharma LP to pull all OxyContin advertisements printed in a widely read journal because they fail to properly warn readers of the medication's adverse side effects. The ads, which the FDA says "grossly misrepresent" the safety of OxyContin,

Purdue Pharma announced this week that an abuse-resistant form of its controversial pain reliever OxyContin would not be available next year as planned. The announcement was a major disappointment for the drug manufacturer, which has been taking criticism from health officials and activists who want the drug banned.

A new report published by the Florida Medical Examiner's office says that oxycodone, the main ingredient in the painkiller OxyContin, caused or contributed to more deaths last year in Florida than heroin. According to the examiner's office, it is the first time that the state has seen more deaths linked to a prescript

A popular Northeastern supermarket chain will stop carrying the controversial pain medication OxyContin in its pharmacies due to an increasing number of robberies involving the drug. A spokesperson for Stop & Shop, which has over 300 stores in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, said in

According to a new report released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the painkiller OxyContin may have contributed to 464 drug overdose deaths in the last two years. The new data comes months after the DEA launched an investigation into the drug's involvement in hundreds of overdose deaths across the country.

Purdue Pharma is tired of the negative press it has received since OxyContin began to make headlines. The pharmaceutical company, which makes the painkiller, is launching a six-month advertising campaign designed to inform consumers about the company's efforts to curb abuse of the drug. In newspaper advertisements ac