Changed medical practice has reduced the need for blood transfusions, spurring cutbacks and mergers in the blood industry. Meanwhile, Chicago and two counties in California are suing five companies for “aggressive marketing†of opioid painkillers, accusing them of fueling addiction.
The New York Times: Blood Industry Shrinks As Transfusions Decline
Changes in medicine have eliminated the need for millions of blood transfusions, which is good news for patients getting procedures like coronary bypasses and other procedures that once required a lot of blood. But the trend is wreaking havoc in the blood bank business, forcing a wave of mergers and job cutbacks unlike anything the industry, which became large scale after World War II, has ever seen (Wald, 8/22).
The New York Times: Chicago And 2 California Counties Sue Over Marketing Of Painkillers
As the country struggles to combat the growing abuse of heroin and opioid painkillers, a new battlefield is emerging: the courts. The City of Chicago and two California counties are challenging the drug industry’s way of doing business, contending in two separate lawsuits that “aggressive marketing†by five companies has fueled an epidemic of addiction and cost taxpayers millions of dollars in insurance claims and other health care costs (Schwartz, 8/24).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.