Health News Summary: Deaths, bad outcomes elude scrutiny at Canada's indigenous clinics

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Deaths, bad outcomes elude scrutiny at Canada's indigenous clinics

Ina Matawapit was barely conscious - intoxicated and suffering from a blow to the head - when police drove her to the North Caribou Lake clinic in Ontario, Canada, one summer evening in 2012. The nurse at the federal government-run clinic, the only source of emergency care in this remote indigenous community, told the officers the 37-year-old could sober up in jail, according to testimony at a 2018 inquest. Minutes after leaving the clinic, the police sped back. Matawapit had no pulse and could not be revived. New York, states reach $700 million settlement with Reckitt over opioid probes

New York and other states have reached a $700 million settlement deal with Reckitt Benckiser over allegations that the drug distributor improperly marketed a drug to treat opioid addiction, New York Attorney General Letitia James said on Wednesday. The deal is a part of an up to $1.4 billion settlement agreed to in July to resolve U.S. state and federal claims that Reckitt Benckiser's former pharmaceuticals business Indivior, before it was spun out, carried out an illegal scheme to boost sales of opioid addiction treatment Suboxone. Several states wary of $48 billion opioid settlement proposal

Several U.S. states that have been ravaged by the opioid epidemic are pushing back on a proposed $48 billion settlement framework that would resolve thousands of lawsuits against five drug companies accused of fueling the addiction crisis. The proposal would bring an end to all opioid litigation against AmerisourceBergen Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and McKesson Corp, drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Inc, and Johnson & Johnson. Teva's proposed opioid settlement could cost drugmaker pennies on the dollar

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd's proposed $23 billion drug giveaway to settle thousands of U.S. opioid lawsuits will likely cost the company a fraction of that figure due to how it has valued those medicines, according to a Reuters review of pricing data and industry analysts. When Teva announced the value of the donated medicine - a generic version of opioid addiction treatment Suboxone - it based the figure on the drug's list price, which does not account for significant discounts routinely provided by the drugmaker. South Korea's top convenience store chain stops selling flavored liquid e-cigarettes

South Korea's top convenience store chain GS25 has stopped selling flavored liquid e-cigarettes, the parent company GS Retail said on Thursday. The sales suspension came a day after the country's health minister warned the public to stop using liquid vaping products, citing a number of deaths attributed to e-cigarettes in the United States. Two of three polio viruses eradicated in 'historic' step: WHO

The World Health Organization welcomed an "historic step" toward a polio-free world on Thursday as an expert panel certified that the second of three types of the crippling virus has been eradicated globally. The announcement by the Global Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication means that only wild polio virus type 1 is still circulating, after type 2 was declared eradicated in 2015, and type 3 this week. That last toke for the road could be a downer with pot breathalyzers coming

One toke for the road could end up being a total bummer for drivers who smoke pot, with several companies in the United States preparing to market cannabis breathalyzers as legalized marijuana spreads across the country. Law enforcement agencies will require breathalyzers to detect marijuana as they are "faced with the necessity of stopping more and more motor vehicles being operated under the influence of THC," said Brett Meade, a retired police chief and a senior program manager for Washington-based non-profit group the Police Foundation. J&J slashes third-quarter profit by $3 billion over proposed opioid deal

Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday lowered its previously reported third-quarter profit by $3 billion to account for a proposed opioid settlement payment. A framework settlement, announced on Monday, was hammered out by some drugmakers and distributors and attorneys general in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. The proposed deal will need broad support among all the state attorneys general and local governments that have sued the companies over the opioid crisis. Baxter International named in opioid complaint by Georgia county

Medical supply company Baxter International Inc has been named in a complaint along with other makers and distributors of opioids for improperly marketing the drugs, a filing showed on Thursday. Baxter, which also makes generic drugs, said it was served in August with the amended complaint filed by Fayette County in the multi-district litigation pending in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio. (http://bit.ly/31F5Zy1) Cystic fibrosis drug to be available in England after pricing deal

Cystic fibrosis patients in England will have access to life-extending drugs after the state-funded health service said it had agreed a pricing deal with manufacturer Vertex Pharmaceuticals. England's National Health Service (NHS) has been negotiating with Vertex for years about supplying Orkambi, a combination drug that improves lung function.