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McKinsey & Company, the consultant to blue-chip corporations and governments around the world, has agreed to pay nearly $600 million to settle investigations into its role in helping “turbocharge” opioid sales, a rare instance of it being held publicly accountable for its work with clients...The firm has reached a $573 million agreement with attorneys general in 47 states, the District of Columbia and five territories, according to a court filing in Massachusetts on Thursday. Separate deals were announced in Washington State, for $13 million, and in West Virginia, for $10 million...The settlements come after lawsuits unearthed a trove of documents showing how McKinsey worked to drive sales of Purdue Pharma’s OxyContin painkiller...READ MORE

The U.S. Department of Justice is set to recover more than $3 billion this year from pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers as well as healthcare providers, labs and pharmacies found guilty of healthcare fraud under the False Claims Act. That figure is based upon settlements that were agreed to but not finalized before the end of 2020, and are the direct result of the DoJ’s investigation into the opioid epidemic...READ MORE

Within days of AstraZeneca's surprise cut to first-quarter COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to Europe, a fierce debate between the drugmaker and government officials is playing out behind the scenes—and in the press...CEO Pascal Soriot said the company has no legal obligation to deliver vaccines on a specific timeline. The EU maintains AZ’s new delivery schedule is “not acceptable.”...The sides were set to meet Wednesday, but an EU official told Politico the drugmaker had pulled out. AstraZeneca told Fierce Pharma via email it hadn't...READ MORE

Gov. Steve Sisolak has asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to look into why Nevada is near the bottom of the list for the amount of COVID-19 vaccine it has been allocated per capita...“We need our fair share of vaccine doses to stand up and sustain successful vaccination efforts to reach Nevadans in an equitable fashion,” Sisolak wrote in a letter to acting Health and Human Services Secretary Norris Cochran, according to a news release on Monday. “Through this letter I am asking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to look into why Nevada is so low on the allocation list, and more important, to find ways to increase our allocation both immediately and for the long term.”...READ MORE

Nevada health officials are sending a message to federal agencies allocating COVID-19 vaccines to states: Show us your math...Questions have dogged state officials since Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed Nevada consistently ranking near the bottom of national lists for both receiving vaccine doses and putting shots into arms...Each state’s vaccine allocation is purportedly proportional to its adult population, but officials have offered conflicting information on what year’s population numbers are being used...READ MORE

In the United States, methamphetamine overdose deaths surged from 2011 to 2018, according to a report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse...Rapid increases were seen across all racial and ethnic groups, but American Indians and Alaska Natives were most affected. Deaths involving methamphetamines more than quadrupled among non-Hispanic American Indians and Alaska Natives from 4.5 to 20.9 per 100,000 people, with sharp increases for both men and women in those groups...Methamphetamine use is linked to a range of serious health risks, including overdose deaths. Unlike for opioids, there are currently no FDA-approved medications for treating methamphetamine use disorder or reversing overdoses. However, behavioral therapies such as contingency management therapy can be effective in reducing harms associated with use of the drug, and a recent clinical trial reported significant therapeutic benefits with the combination of naltrexone and bupropion in patients with methamphetamine use disorder...READ MORE

A special fund for vaccine research that was set aside by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2010 has been misused to pay for unrelated expenses, a government report shows...In a letter to newly-inaugurated President Joe Biden and Congress, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said millions of dollars intended to be used to bolster preparedness for public health emergencies such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and other potential viral outbreaks, have been flagrantly misused to finance other expenses...READ MORE

Amid a slew of cuts attempting to mitigate projected budget shortfalls in a state largely dependent on tourism and gaming for revenue, state employees are protesting proposed changes that would reduce health care coverage options provided by the state...The proposed cuts in the Nevada Public Employees' Benefits Program budget would reduce life insurance benefits from $25,000 for an active employee to $15,000 and from $12,500 for a retiree to $7,500, eliminate long-term disability insurance and lower Medicare Health Reimbursement Arrangement contributions from $13 to $11 a month per year of service. Though Gov. Steve Sisolak in his State of the State address touted only a 2 percent state budget cut, programs such as PEBP are feeling the cuts more deeply than others...READ MORE

Pfizer and Moderna have agreed to deliver another 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to the U.S., bringing the total on tap to 600 million, or enough to vaccinate 300 million people...President Joe Biden announced the pending deals on Tuesday, noting the extra doses would be delivered this summer. Moderna confirmed the negotiations in a press release...although it said the discussions are for “delivery in the third quarter of 2021.” Pfizer also confirmed the negotiations but didn't specify the timing...READ MORE

Dr. Anthony Fauci made $417,608 in 2019, the latest year for which federal salaries are available. That made him not only the highest paid doctor in the federal government, but the highest paid out of all four million federal employees...In fact, Dr. Fauci even made more than the $400,000 salary of the President of the United States. All salary data was collected by OpenTheBooks.com via Freedom of Information Act requests...In an August 13, 2020 Instagram interview with actor Matthew McConaughey, Dr. Fauci was asked if he had millions of dollars invested in the vaccines. Dr. Fauci laughed and answered, “Matthew, no, I got zero! I am a government worker. I have a government salary.”...READ MORE