Next spring, the U.S. Supreme Court will soon look at the very profitable policy called “pay for delay.” Profitability in this case extends primarily to both the brand-name manufacturers and generic drug makers at the expense of the consumer. Estimates are “pay for delay,” costs consumers an extra $3.5.8 billion […]
How much can one bad drug cost a company? Just ask Merck. When its painkiller drug Vioxx was pulled from the market in 2004, Merck was facing 27,000 lawsuits which culminated in a $4.85.8 billion settlement. Then last year the U.S Department of Justice reached a $950 million civil and […]
It took the death of five infants but major U.S. stores have finally recalled a popular baby recliner more than two years after infant deaths and injuries were first reported. Buy Buy Baby and Toys R Us are taking 150,000 Nap Nanny recliners off store shelves, reports CNN. The federal […]
January first marks a new chapter for medical device manufacturers, who will be required to pay an excise tax of 2.3 percent on total revenues. Medical devices range from small stents and CT scans to pacemakers, defibrillators, metal hips and synthetic surgical mesh. The $125-billion-a-year industry complains it will be […]
A British Columbia court has agreed to allow a class-action lawsuit to proceed and to be headed by the case of an infant born with a hole in her heart after her mother took the antidepressant Paxil (paroxetine). The mother, Faith Gibson, is suing GlaxoSmithKline Inc. (GSK), the maker of […]
This news is putting a scare into the pharmaceutical cosmetics industry. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has written a warning letter to more than 350 medical practices about a bogus Botox that may have come from a foreign source distributed through Canada. The product may be contaminated, counterfeit, […]
Almost no one believes it’s easy to quit smoking, so when the drug Chantix hit the U.S. market in May 2006, some smokers breathed a sigh of relief they had finally found a way out from the grip of cigarettes. Chantix works by blocking the pleasant effects of nicotine on […]
Texting takes concentration, whether you are behind the wheel of a car or walking down a busy street. And a new study of Seattle pedestrians finds many are putting their lives in danger by distracted walking. About 60,000 pedestrians are injured by cars every year and 4,000 are killed so […]
In a court decision that could open the floodgates for drug promotion, an appellate court has thrown out the conviction of a drug salesman who promoted a drug for off-label use citing his free speech rights. Alfred Caronia worked for Orphan Medical where he sold the narcolepsy drug Xyren. He […]
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is fighting a patient lawsuit and seeking to have it dismissed on the grounds that the company did warn patients of the potential for metal erosion and the need for revision surgery. This California case was filed by plaintiff Loren Kransky in December 2010, just after […]
