- Official: Doctors in Nevada execution plan want names secret (apnews.com)
Nevada Department of Corrections - execution chamber at Ely State Prison
Two physicians enlisted to oversee what would be Nevada’s first execution since 2006 don’t ever want to be identified publicly, state officials told a federal judge...Prison officials want to use a never-before-tried combination of three or four drugs to execute Zane Michael Floyd by lethal injection, including the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl and the anesthetic ketamine...The 46-year-old Floyd, who was was convicted in 2000 of killing four people and wounding a fifth in a 1999 shotgun attack at a Las Vegas grocery store, does not want to die and has several cases that could delay or stop his execution pending in court...His attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware II to require the state to provide information about the professional qualifications of any doctors, emergency medical technicians and intravenous injection administrators involved in the execution...READ MORE
- Judge: FDA Cannot Have Until 2076 to Disclose Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine Data (biospace.com)
...federal judge in Texas has denied attempts by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conceal data on Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. The judicial rule overturned the regulatory agency’s plan to withhold data for up to 55 years...The ruling follows a lawsuit filed by a nonprofit organization called Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency, which was formed to promote transparency of the COVID-19 vaccine data used to secure Emergency Use Authorization. In its lawsuit...the PHMPT claimed that under federal law, the data and information in the biological product file that was submitted to the FDA are expected to be available for public disclosure unless extraordinary circumstances have been shown. The judge presiding over the lawsuit agreed...The judge’s ruling demands that the FDA make the data publicly available within a span of eight months...READ MORE
- Nevada defends untested lethal injection plan as drugs near expiration (thenevadaindependent.com)
Zane Michael Floyd
State corrections officials told a federal judge last week that they’re quickly running out time before a crucial lethal injection drug proposed for use in the execution of death row inmate Zane Floyd will expire...Nevada Department of Corrections Director Charles Daniels said in federal court that his chief concern with carrying out the execution is that the necessary drugs would expire before the state could proceed with its execution plan.His testimony followed days of hearings last week, during which medical experts called by the state made the case that the state’s proposed drug cocktail, never before used in carrying out a death sentence, would result in a painless death for Floyd...“My understanding is that it would be less painful than other methods,” said Daniel Buffington, a clinical pharmacologist who works at the University of South Florida. “It would reduce the individual's anxiety… It would be quick.”...
READMORE - Student denied emergency relief in Nevada vaccination suit (lasvegassun.com)
A college student who argues he’s immune from COVID-19 because he was previously infected has lost his bid for an emergency court order that would have allowed him to register for classes while he presses his federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of UNR's mandatory vaccination policy...A U.S district judge from California...said in denying the temporary restraining order sought by 18-year-old Jacob Gold that he’s failed to establish a fundamental constitutional right to refuse vaccination...Gold claims that because he recovered from COVID-19, he has immunity superior to students who’ve been vaccinated and it is statistically impossible for a shot to benefit him...READMORE
- Judge Grants Stay in Federal Case Against Pharmacy DIR Fees Until Proposed Rule Finalized (ncpa.org)APhA, others file federal lawsuit against HHS to close DIR loophole (pharmacytoday.org)
The National Community Pharmacists Association and the American Pharmacists Association... issued the following statement in response to a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to grant a stay the case, NCPA v. Becerra, which challenges the legality of retroactive pharmacy price concessions, also known as pharmacy direct and indirect remuneration fees:...“We are pleased by the court’s decision to grant our request for a stay, or a pause in the litigation, until the recently proposed rule potentially addressing retroactive pharmacy DIR fees is finalized. We are currently analyzing the proposed rule to determine whether it addresses our longstanding concerns with retroactive pharmacy DIR fees, and we plan to submit comments reflecting our analysis. Since our litigation also seeks to end retroactive pharmacy DIR fees, we believe, and the court agreed, that a pause in the case is appropriate pending the outcome of the rulemaking process.”
- Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes guilty of fraud (healthcareitnews.com)
Former - Theranos,CEO Elizabeth Holmes
Holmes faced 11 total counts, and the jury found her guilty of four of them. Each carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison...Theranos founder and former chief executive officer Elizabeth Holmes, who once promised "lab on a chip" technology to upend the diagnostics industry...The verdict follows months of testimony, including some from doctors, former Theranos employees and board members, patients, and Holmes herself, about their experiences with the once-vaunted blood-testing startup..."Holmes and [former Theranos chief operating officer Ramesh] Balwani used advertisements and solicitations to encourage and induce doctors and patients to use Theranos' blood testing laboratory services, even though, according to the government, the defendants knew Theranos was not capable of consistently producing accurate and reliable results for certain blood tests," read the indictment...READ MORE
- Biden asks Supreme Court to back health worker vaccine mandate after legal challenges (fiercehealthcare.com)Federal appeals court revives Biden's vaccine mandate for health workers in 26 states (fiercehealthcare.com)
The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to preserve its vaccination mandate for healthcare workers after legal challenges in several states...The Department of Justice released a legal filing...that seeks to overturn a ruling from a federal court late last month that blocked the mandate in 10 states...a divided panel in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the government’s motion to hold off enforcing the ruling until an appeal can be heard...This week, a federal appeals court reinstated in 26 states the administration's vaccination mandate for health workers at hospitals that receive federal funding. As it stands, the vaccine requirement for Medicare and Medicaid providers is blocked by courts in about half of U.S. states but not in the other half, creating the potential for patchwork enforcement across the country...READ MORE
- Elizabeth Holmes: Theranos fraudster to avoid sentencing for at least eight months (unitednewspost.com)Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes convicted on 4 counts of fraud (abcnews.go.com)
Elizabeth Holmes, the Theranos founder convicted of four counts of felony criminal fraud by a jury earlier this month, probably will not receive her sentence until after Labor Day...The filing describes the reason for the delay as related to “ongoing proceedings in a related matter.” The federal fraud trial of Holmes’ co-accused, former Theranos chief operating officer Sunny Balwani, is expected to start in March...She is free on a $500,000 bond secured by her signature, but the filing said her lawyers have agreed with the prosecution to have the bond secured by property...READ MORE
- Attorney General Aaron Ford announces Nevada to join opiod settlement (reviewjournal.com)Nevada to receive $285 million in latest round of opioid settlements (thenevadaindependent.com)
Attorney General Aaron Ford
Attorney General Aaron Ford announced Thursday that Nevada would join a multi-state opiod settlement with drugmakers and distributors...Ford said that the state would receive around $285 million through a pair of settlements...Last year, Ford announced a $45 million settlement against one company involved in the opioid litigation. The lawsuit is being handled on a contingency fee basis for the state by Eglet Prince, the law firm where Ford worked as a private attorney before being elected attorney general in 2018. Ford, however, recused himself from the selection process...Ford in August announced that Nevada would opt out of a $26 billion multi-state settlement...READ MORE
- U.S. judge tosses $4.5 bln deal shielding Sacklers from opioid lawsuits (reuters.com)
A federal judge overturned a roughly $4.5 billion settlement that legally shielded members of the Sackler family who stand accused of helping fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic, a decision that threatened to upend the bankruptcy reorganization of their company, OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP...U.S. District Judge...said...the New York bankruptcy court that approved the settlement did not have authority to grant the Sacklers the legal protection from future opioid litigation that formed the linchpin of Purdue’s reorganization...READ MORE