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A U.S. senator on Friday called for federal investigations of OxyContin’s manufacturer in response to a Los Angeles Times report that found the bestselling painkiller wears off early in many patients, exposing them to increased risk of addiction. Sen. Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat whose state has been hit hard by prescription drug abuse, urged the Justice Department, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission to launch probes of drugmaker Purdue Pharma. (Ryan, 5/27)

It was an intervention that never happened, and it featured two stars: Prince, an adored music icon, and buprenorphine, an obscure drug hailed as a revolutionary tool to fight opioid addiction. Prince died before the first scene, when a drug-addiction consultant, a physician and Prince's associates converged on the star's Paisley Park home near Minneapolis, based on official accounts. The plot twist? The consultant, Andrew Kornfeld of the Recovery Without Walls clinic in Mill Valley, Calif., was carrying a small amount of buprenorphine. Nicknamed “bupe,” it is also known by several commercial names including Suboxone. (Mohan, 5/30)

When doctors try to figure out whether a patient might become addicted to opioid painkillers, they rely on clinical risk factors like family history, medical history and other social and environmental clues. (Fiore, 5/29)

New York lawmakers are considering legislation to limit the amount of prescription opioid drugs patients can get after an initial visit to the doctor's office, part of an effort to reduce the amount of pills that accumulate in medicine cabinets and help fuel a statewide addiction crisis. (5/29)

Pharmacy giant CVS says it will soon make the overdose-reversing drug Naloxone available at its Florida stores without a prescription. (Ash, 5/27)