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Newly unearthed documents show that the Food and Drug Administration failed to use its policing powers to make sure a program to curb improper prescribing of opioids was effective, researchers say. The lax oversight, they point out, occurred as the epidemic was growing and tens of thousands of people were dying from overdoses each year. In 2011, the FDA began asking the makers of OxyContin and other addictive long-acting opioids to pay for safety training for more than half the physicians prescribing the drugs, and to track the effectiveness of the training and other measures in reducing addiction, overdoses and deaths. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers, who relied on thousands of pages of internal FDA documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, found the agency repeatedly could not determine whether the companies’ safety strategies were working because of poor study designs, which the agency itself had approved.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
It’s the start of a new year and new decade — but the end of an era for the Newseum, which closed its doors for the last time Tuesday. Officials at the journalism museum announced early last year that it would close at the end of December due to financial struggles and that the 250,000-square-foot building on Pennsylvania Avenue would be sold to Johns Hopkins University. Over the past few weeks, hundreds of visitors have toured the Newseum’s seven floors, where the exhibits and artifacts will be de-installed and sent to a storage facility until a new permanent location for public viewing is found.
The Washington Times
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