Free Republic

San Francisco’s mayor plans to put medical teams on the streets to distribute a drug that curbs heroin cravings in opioid addicts, an initiative he says will be the first in the country. Mayor Mark Farrell announced Thursday he will allocate $6 million for 10 new public health clinicians to provide the opioid treatment medicine buprenorphine, known as Suboxone, directly to users. Buprenorphine is a daily pill or dissolvable strip that reduces cravings and alleviates withdrawal symptoms. It also reduces risk of overdose. Video and photos of people shooting up drugs in public have gone viral in recent weeks and...

U.S. health officials on Thursday approved the first injectable form of the leading medication to treat patients recovering from addiction to heroin, prescription painkillers and other opioids. The Food and Drug Administration approved once-a-month Sublocade for adults with opioid use disorder who are already stabilized on addiction medication. The monthly injection has the potential to reduce dangerous relapses that occur when patients stop taking the currently available daily medication. But that benefit has not yet been shown in studies and the new drug comes with a hefty price: $1,580 per monthly dose. The older version of the drug, Suboxone, costs...

A 30 day injection that blocks the appetite to drink, offers alcohol-dependent patients a new and better way to fight their addiction. The FDA has just approved the drug, something psychiatrists here and around the country have been anxiously waiting for. Rick Herschel is a college professor who lost almost everything because of a drinking problem. In fact, he was even stopping at bars before and after rehab, almost thumbing his nose at any attempts to intervene in his addiction. Rick Herschel: "So I systematically had taken everyone who cared for me and pushed them away." But then along came...

WASHINGTON - A once-a-month injection to treat alcoholism won federal approval Thursday, expanding availability of a drug previously sold only in daily pill form. The Food and Drug Administration approved Vivitrol, spokeswoman Laura Alvey said. Cambridge, Mass.-based Alkermes Inc. will make the injectable form of the drug, also known as naltrexone. Cephalon Inc., of Frazer, Pa., will market and sell it. The companies hope monthly injections of the drug, to be administered at a doctor's office, will prove an easier regimen for alcoholics to follow than the daily pill. The drug is to be used in conjunction with counseling or...