• Connecticut: Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, has been ordered to pay over $5 billion in criminal penalties and will be dissolved as part of a legal settlement resolving thousands of opioid-related lawsuits. According to court documents, Purdue illegally marketed opioid products between 2007 and 2017, paid kickbacks to encourage opioid prescribing, and misrepresented programs meant to prevent drug diversion to the black market to the Drug Enforcement Administration. In November 2020, Purdue pleaded guilty to three felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. As part of the settlement, a federal court ordered Purdue to pay a criminal fine of $3.544 billion, as well as an additional $2 billion in criminal forfeiture. The company will also be dissolved and replaced by a new company, Knoa Pharma, which focuses on combating the opioid crisis. Purdue also faces a separate $7.5 billion opioid settlement, which is tied to the company's bankruptcy and was approved by a federal court last November. (Jeffries, Becker's Hospital Review, 4/29; Associated Press/MedPage Today, 4/29)
• District of Columbia: The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) recently reported preliminary results from its ongoing project focused on developing treatments for osteoarthritis. The new research currently focuses on knee osteoarthritis, but investigators say that the treatments could eventually be applied to osteoarthritis in any joint. At Duke University and the University of Colorado, Boulder, two research teams have developed injections or infusions that could help regrow bone and cartilage. A separate team at Columbia University has also potentially developed a way to regrow an entire knee. So far, the methods have only been tested in animals, but experts say they find the results encouraging. "It's hugely promising," said Scott Rodeo, vice chair of orthopedic research at the Hospital for Special Surgery. "Right now, everything we have just modifies symptoms." He added that curing arthritis by regrowing cartilage and bone "would be a paradigm shift." The research teams are expected to start testing their methods in patients within 18 months, as required by their contracts with ARPA-H. (Kolata, New York Times, 4/6)
• Georgia: CDC sent an alert to state and local health departments warning of a potential increase in measles cases during the summer. "With continued measles transmission in areas across North America and expected increases in international and domestic travel and large events during spring and summer, additional measles cases are anticipated in the coming months," CDC said. In the alert, CDC reminded health departments to report measles cases to the agency with 24 hours, conduct contract tracing for exposed individuals, and perform outreach to under-vaccinated communities. So far this year, there have been 1,782 measles cases reported across 36 states. South Carolina, which had the largest measles outbreak in the United States in over 35 years with 997 cases, recently declared its outbreak over. (Taylor, Becker's Hospital Review, 4/30)

Leveraging pharmacy expertise, Advocate Aurora Health created a supportive opioid wean program to minimize patient risk and help PCPs manage patients' pain.