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Federal health officials on Thursday approved an innovative new option for Americans struggling with addiction to heroin and painkillers: a drug-oozing implant that curbs craving and withdrawal symptoms for six months at a time. The first-of-a-kind device, Probuphine, arrives as communities across the U.S. grapple with a wave of addiction tied to opioids, highly-addictive drugs that include legal pain medications like OxyContin and illegal narcotics like heroin. Roughly 2.5 million Americans suffer from addiction disorders related to the drugs, according to federal estimates. (Perrone, 5/26)

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first implantable drug to deliver long-lasting medication to people addicted to opioids such as OxyContin and heroin. "Opioid abuse and addiction have taken a devastating toll on American families," FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf said in a news release. "Today's approval provides the first-ever implantable option to support patients' efforts to maintain treatment as part of their overall recovery program." The implant, which has four matchstick-size rods that are inserted under the skin of the upper arm, administers the anti-addiction drug buprenorphine in a continuous dose for six months. That medication is available now only as a daily pill or a thin film that dissolves under the tongue. The implant, called Probuphine, is intended for people who are already stable on low doses of the drug. (McGinley, 5/26)

The first-ever implant to fight addiction to opioids, a class of drugs that includes prescription painkillers and heroin, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday. (Grover, 5/26)

Behshad Sheldon, chief executive of the implant’s marketer, Braeburn Pharmaceuticals, said Probuphine would cost less than $6,000 for a six-month supply. She declined to be more specific. Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc. co-developed the device with Braeburn, and will receive royalties on sales. Buprenorphine is already available in tablet form, or as films that dissolve in the mouth, but addicts sometimes run out of doses, or skip them and use illegal narcotics instead. Some also sell their buprenorphine to other addicts. The implant makes this behavior impossible, and so has won support from some addiction experts. (Whalen, 5/26)

There’s a new tool available to help combat the opioid crisis. The Food and Drug Administration has approved an implant that continuously dispenses the opioid addiction medication buprenorphine for six months, the agency announced on Thursday. (Robbins, 5/26)

The opioid antidote naloxone will soon be available without a prescription at CVS pharmacies across Louisiana, the company announced Wednesday (May 25). The move will dramatically increase access to the life-saving medication at a time when heroin and opioid overdoses in the United States are reaching all-time highs. (Lipinski, 5/25)

Strong support from family members and health care providers looms key to helping patients trying to scale back or stop their use of potentially dangerous opioid painkillers, according to a new Colorado study. The project, done by a team of researchers from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Eastern Colorado Health Care System, sought to examine patient views on tapering back chronic opioid therapy amid evidence of increased risks and questionable long-term benefits from using prescription opioids for pain management. (Simpson, 5/26)

It doesn't happen very often that the Legislature passes bills that will save lives, said state Rep. Al Pscholka. But on Thursday, the House did just that, passing a pair of bills on 107-1 votes that would expand the state's Good Samaritan laws to help reduce the growing epidemic of drug overdose deaths. (Gray, 5/26)