A commonly prescribed painkiller and anticonvulsant (seizure medication) widely believed to be “benign” has become increasingly associated with overdose deaths in the United States. The medication is gabapentin, commonly marketed as Neurontin, Horizant, and Gralise. Over the years, gabapentin prescribing has steadily increased, with 64 million prescriptions dispensed in 2016, making the drug the 10th…

A study has found that drugs with high abuse potential are around six times more likely to be approved as compared to drugs with low abuse potential for pain medications. “The probability of successful development programs was 27.8 percent for high abuse potential compounds and 4.7 percent for low abuse potential compounds,” the authors wrote…

A bankruptcy judge on Monday approved up to $7.1 million in bonuses for five executives of Purdue Pharma, the bankrupt maker of OxyContin, at a hearing at which he faced blunt criticism for his handling of the case from a woman whose son died of an opioid overdose. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain in White Plains,…