New medical school; price fixing for generic drugs; heart health and recreational drug use – Morning Medical Update

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New medical school breaks ground

Officials gathered Sept. 10 to break ground for the new Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine in North Carolina. The $60 million project includes a new 200-room building with classrooms, laboratories and other rooms and eventually will graduate more than 100 new doctors a year.

That drug costs how much?

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced generic pharmaceutical maker Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc. USA will pay $25 to resolve alleged liability for conspiring to fix the price of pravastatin, which is widely used to treat high cholesteral and triglyceride levels. The scheme took place between 2013 and 2015. The civil settlement is the sixth resolution arising the DOJ’s investigation of price fixing by generic drug makers.

Recreational drugs and heart health

A study this year found patients admitted to intensive cardiac care units had almost three times greater risk of major adverse heart events within a year if they used recreational drugs. The comparison with nonusers found cannabis, opioids, cocaine, amphetamines and MDMA all were problematic for heart risk.