Five years after Congress passed a law to reduce unnecessary MRIs, CT scans and other expensive diagnostic imaging tests that could harm patients and waste money, federal officials have yet to implement it.
A shortage of a versatile medicine used to treat immune disorders and other diseases has forced U.S. hospitals and infusion clinics to suspend treatment for many patients. The medicine, immune globulin, contains antibodies harvested from plasma, a component of blood.
In the conclusion of her recently published book, "Bottle of Lies," Katherine Eban briefly notes that the Food and Drug Administration avoids sanctioning generic manufacturers that sell drugs that are in short supply regardless of how poorly manufactured or counterfeit they are. "Drug shortages had become a game," she writes, "and the FDA was getting played."
Wearing a surgical gown and a mask, 9-year-old Adam Litwin watched in awe as his grandfather, a podiatrist, mended a fractured foot. "I was just mesmerized," Litwin recalled.
Prescriptions of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone are soaring, and experts say that could be a reason overdose deaths have stopped rising for the first time in nearly three decades.