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Food and Drug Administration approved the first-ever nasal spray emergency treatment for opioid overdose…The spray, developed by privately held Adapt Pharma Ltd, uses naloxone, a drug used to treat opioid overdose for nearly 45 years but approved only in injectable forms…The treatment…is expected to have wide coverage under health insurance with affordable co-pays…Group purchasers, such as law enforcement, fire fighters, departments of health, local school districts, colleges and universities, and community-based organizations will be able to purchase the spray at a discounted price of $37.50 per 4 mg device…

Drug Enforcement Administration…announced today the publication of a statewide Drug Overdose Assessment for Pennsylvania. The report, entitled “Analysis of Drug-Related Overdose Deaths in Pennsylvania, 2014,” is the first comprehensive assessment of deaths caused by drugs for the commonwealth…DEA received information from 62 of the state’s 67 counties on 2,497 deaths caused by the misuse of illicit drugs and diverted pharmaceuticals. Heroin was the most frequently identified drug (more than 51 percent of deaths), and more than 60 percent of the decedents showed the presence of an opioid. Also of note, 12 rural counties were among the 20 counties with the highest rate of drug-related deaths per 100,000 people.

Drug Enforcement Administration…announced Pittsburgh as the pilot city for a comprehensive law enforcement and prevention “360 Strategy” to help cities dealing with a heroin and prescription drug abuse epidemic, and its associated violent crime…“The work of law enforcement to remove the traffickers and the work of our partner agencies doing treatment and prevention in Pittsburgh has already had an impact on the city’s drug problem,”…“The 360 strategy brings together for the first time, the agencies that have dealt with this problem separately, into a comprehensive and sustained effort to not only fight drug traffickers but also to make communities resilient to their return.”…The DEA 360 Strategy comprises a three-fold approach to fighting drug traffickers:

• Provide DEA leadership
• Have a long-lasting impact
• Change attitudes

U.S. prosecutors plan to ask the Canadian and British governments to extradite officials with an online pharmacy on charges of smuggling $78 million worth of mislabeled, unapproved and counterfeit cancer drugs into the country to sell to doctors…Fourteen companies and individuals from Canada, the United Kingdom, Barbados and the U.S. are accused of participating in the conspiracy that involved falsifying customs declarations for shipments from the U.K., according to the criminal indictment…Winnipeg-based Canadadrugs.com and its CEO, Kristjan Thorkelson, are accused of spearheading the conspiracy, aided by a subsidiary in the U.K., River East Supplies Ltd., and two subsidiaries in Barbados, Rockley Ventures Ltd. and Global Drug Supply Ltd.

French hospitals' mass casualty response can be a guide for United States..The horrifying attacks on restaurants, clubs and cafés in Paris last week have resulted in a call by U.S. federal agencies for healthcare providers and hospitals to review their disaster plans and to exercise "enhanced vigilance"…Department of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services urged healthcare providers this week to "review and exercise their security plans" in the wake of the attacks…The notice urged healthcare organizations to:

• Review security plans and conduct drills that incorporate scenarios based on tactics recently used
• Review active shooter, suspicious activity reporting, and counter-IED preparedness in training and awareness initiatives and in organizational safety briefings
• Ensure proper functioning of emergency communications equipment and conduct regular tests

Hussein “Sam” Arwada also admitted to defrauding the health care system of $2.3 million…physician who practiced in Warren, Michigan, was sentenced to 84 months in prison today for writing prescriptions for oxycodone and other controlled medications without medical justification, and for health care fraud…he conspired with James Lyons, a patient “marketer,” and others, to write prescriptions for 80,000 doses of oxycodone, and other controlled medications. The prescriptions were written in the names of people who were brought to him by Lyons and other marketers, for no legitimate medical purpose. The marketers then bought the pills from the “patients” and re-sold them to street dealers. Awada then used the patient data...to submit bills to Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield for services that were either never performed or were medically unjustified. Awada caused these same patients to receive monthly x-rays, and other invasive tests, which were medically unnecessary but helped to conceal his fraud.

How do dangerous narcotics cartels smuggle their goods into the U.S. and what is the human cost of their operations? The Onion explains the drug trade. (humor warning - may not be suitable for all audiences)

Offenders facing court-ordered drug tests in Reno Municipal Court have often found ways around the system. That just got a lot harder and consequences for cheaters a lot swifter…Their crimes may vary…But the common underlying cause is substance abuse. That makes them potential candidates for one of the specialty courts. Instead of housing them behind bars, they are sentenced to sobriety and a rigorous schedule of random testing… But the court now has a new drug-screening lab. Samples, as many as 54 at a time, can be analyzed for 11 kinds of drug or alcohol content. Accurate results in minutes…The lab is the first of its kind in northern Nevada.

A hospital in Kentucky is notifying patients of a security incident, after it was discovered that some of its computers had been infected with a keystroke logger designed to capture and transmit data as it was typed…Muhlenberg Community Hospital had detected the malware on some of its machines…Affected computers were used to enter patient financial data and health information, potentially including names, addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates, Social Security numbers, driver's license/state identification numbers, medical and health plan information, financial account numbers, payment card information and employment-related information. Additionally, some credentialing-related information for providers may also be impacted…officials did say that they believe the malware could have captured username and password information for accounts or websites that were accessed by employees, contractors or providers using the affected terminals.

Report says small thefts may indicate syndicates are scoping out targets…Drugmakers have stepped up their game in recent years in protecting their supply chains against cargo theft. But thieves can be resourceful, and a big jump in losses in the third quarter indicates ways in which they have evolved their own techniques…In its Q3 report on U.S. cargo theft, FreightWatch International reported that while cargo thefts across all categories were down 18% and pharma thefts accounted for only 6% of total incidents, the numbers of cargo thefts in the drug industry increased a whopping 125% over the previous quarter and 350% over the same quarter a year ago…The industry continues to work with law enforcement to detect trends, and it has paid off with some arrests and convictions.