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Whether a smoker is trying to quit tobacco or just trying to be fashionable, you may have noticed more e-cigarettes being smoked or “vaped” in public. Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are a trendy, non-offensive way to display the panache of smoking without inhaling the chemically-laced nicotine from a tobacco cigarette. Though […]

The evidence seemed overwhelming. The transvaginal tape (TVT made by Ethicon, a division of Johnson & Johnson) had caused a foreign body reaction inside Carolyn Lewis of Texas, the woman suing the healthcare giant. Her trial began February 10 and was the first federal case to be heard against Johnson […]

The common wisdom is that all drugs deliver a side effect as they deliver relief. The assumption has been that over-the-counter medications (OTC), used by millions of Americans, deliver fewer side effects – but that may not be true. Medications such as Aleve and Advil are getting a second review by […]

You’ve seen the ads on television. With just a dab of testosterone (T) gel under one’s arm, men can have their hormone levels restored as well as their sex drive, muscles, energy, hair, whatever has declined as they age. But a new study shows the practice of turning back time […]

Are men and women affected the same by the same dose of a drug? It turns out that the answer to that question for some drugs is no, and the Food and Drug Administration understood that for the sleeping aid Ambien as far back as 1992. CBS’s 60 Minutes tackled the issue […]

Two years ago, the Food and Drug Association (FDA) was still uncertain about how to address growing concerns over the effects of metal-on-metal (MoM) hip implants. So, on June 27, 2012, the FDA’s Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Devices Panel convened an Advisory Committee in order to hear experts and the public […]

This blog is a continuation of “The FDA’s MoM Panel” which you should read first in order to have a clear idea of what happened at this important event. Click here to go back to Part I. The Manufacturers All major manufacturers still selling MoM hip implants were invited to […]

Spoliation of evidence has been defined by the courts as “the destruction or significant alteration of evidence, or the failure to preserve property for another’s use as evidence in pending or reasonably foreseeable litigation.” The concept behind this word defies one of the basic tenants in our legal system – […]

Merck & Co has reportedly agreed to pay $100 million to settle thousands of product liability cases filed by women injured by the NuvaRing contraceptive medical device. The agreement will provide an average benefit of $58,000 to those who suffered deep vein thrombosis (blood clots), pulmonary embolism from a blood […]

Two separate medical cases, published in leading medical journals the same week, highlight mysterious symptoms that were eventually attributed to metal poisoning from a metal-on-metal (MoM) hip prosthesis. A paper published February 8, in the British medical journal, The Lancet, described a German patient’s quest for an accurate diagnosis. His […]