Cardinal's Plant Is Stopped From Shipping Narcotic Painkillers

(Reuters) - The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said it shut down shipments of controlled substances from Walgreen Co's Florida distribution facility on the suspicion that highly addictive painkillers were being diverted to the black market. The distribution center in Jupiter, Florida, "failed to conduct due diligence to ensure that the controlled substances were not diverted into other than legitimate channels," the DEA said in a email statement. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had inspected the facility along with six of the company's pharmacies in April. ...

Walgreen reached an $80 million settlement with federal authorities over the drugstore chain's distribution of highly addictive painkillers in Florida, long the nation's epicenter of illicit prescription drug sales.

By ChinaBio Today: Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH), the US drug distribution company, is still hunting for M&A opportunities in China’s drug distribution sector.

John Horner, a 46-year-old fast-food restaurant worker, lost his eye in a 2000 accident and was prescribed painkillers. Years later, he met and befriended a guy who seemed to be in pain himself. His new friend asked if he could buy some of Horner's pain pills. Naturally, the friend was a police informant. Prosecutors in Central Florida say Horner was ultimately paid $1,800 for pills. "My public defender told me, 'They got you dead to rights,'" he said. "So I thought, 'OK, I guess there's no need taking this to trial.'"

Florida's top lawyer is asking the state's highest court to decide whether judges may be Facebook friends with prosecutors who argue in their courts. Florida Attorney General Pamela Bondi asked the state's Supreme Court to review an appeals court's decision that answered that very question.

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana law that bans registered sex offenders from using Facebook and other social networking sites that can be accessed by children is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The 7th U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Chicago overturned a federal judge’s decision upholding the law, saying the state was justified in trying to protect children but that the “blanket ban” went too far by restricting free speech.

By ChinaBio Today: Deals and TransactionsNewsummit Pharmaceutical Group teamed up with the Cleveland Bio Fund in a $100 million effort to help US biomedical device companies to commercialize their products in China. The funds were raised in China, where Newsummit is located.