Trending News Today: HHS Secretary Says Drug Overdose Deaths Beginning to Slow

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Tuesday that the number of drug overdose deaths in the United States, largely driven by the opioid epidemic, have begun to level off, The Hill reported. According to the article, Azar suggested that efforts to help support treatment at the local and community level have made a difference, but noted there’s still a long way to go since drug overdoses are not yet declining. President Trump is expected to sign a bipartisan, comprehensive opioid bill that will provide a variety of tools to help combat the epidemic, the article reported.

An investigational prostate cancer drug delayed spread of the disease in a clinical trial, Reuters reported. According to the article, the study included men with non-metastatic prostate cancer that could not be treated with hormonal therapy and showed that the oral drug darolutamide helped delay the spread of metastases. Darolutamide is being jointly developed by Bayer and Orion, the article reported.

A non-opioid drug developed by Pfizer and Eli Lilly significantly reduced osteoarthritis pain of the knee or hip in more than half of patients in a study, Reuters reported. According to the article, the study showed over half of patients with moderate-to-severe pain who were unable to achieve relief with other treatments experienced a reduction in pain when treated with tanezumab. Pfizer and Eli Lilly plan to apply for marketing approval for tanezumab with the FDA next year, the article reported.