The good news is that major retailer, Walmart, will stop the sale of baby products with cancer-causing flame retardant chemicals. The bad news, it will only be done in California. The action follows a report issued by the California-based nonprofit Center for Environmental Health (CEH). It found Walmart and other […]
A recent federal study finds there has been a sharp increase in medical complications associated with childbirth which has forced hospitals to be better prepared. Of the more than four million U.S. births every years, about 52,000 have complications, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a […]
This study published in the December issue of Arthritis Care & Research is the first to look at the risk factors that could lead to a revision after a primary total hip replacement (THR). In the U.S. population, identified by Medicare claims from 29 states, patients who were younger, taller […]
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 […]
