New opioid receptor antagonist; diversifying clinical research; primary care in the Pacific Northwest – Morning Medical Update

Fighting the opioid crisis

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Zurni, the first nalmefene hydrochloride auto-injector for emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose in adults and youths aged 12 years and older. The medicine, available by prescription, is an opioid receptor antagonist. The opioid crisis continues, with a more than 107,000 reported fatal overdoses last year, according to FDA’s news release.

Subjects of study, or not

Women, older adults and minorities have been underrepresented in clinical research. That skews results, hurting research, medicine and health care writ large, and it’s costly – $11 trillion, by one expert estimate. Federal agencies that work with health care could make policy changes that would help, according to an analysis published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, and commissioned by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

Primary care in crisis

Primary care physicians know well the factors that make it difficult to do the job of caring for patients. Here’s a field report by the Seattle Times about primary care in the state of Washington, which, as you might have guessed, has conditions similar to those in other states.