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 […]
Category: Mass Torts
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 […]
Once again we are reminded how money talks and drug companies will do whatever it takes to sell their product, even if it is illegal, not to mention unethical. The state of Maine is the latest state expected to receive in excess of $1.2 million from GlaxoSmithKline LLC (GSK) over […]
By the end of the year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had stated it would make sure that high-risk medical devices were approved through the most stringent premarket approval (PMA) review process to assure the safety of consumers. But it looks as though that will not happen. High-risk […]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced this week it has formed a collaboration with medical device manufacturers in order to speed up the development and approval of devices. The nonprofit group is called the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC) and is made up of industry, academics as well as […]
Boehringer Ingelheim, a German drug company and maker of the blood thinner Pradaxa, must pay the federal government $95 million in compensation for defrauding Medicare. The government charged that Boehringer Ingelheim promoted their drug “off label” meaning for uses they had not received regulatory approval by the U.S. Food and […]
With about 7,700 pharmacies in Florida, it remains a mystery as to how they compound drugs, even to state officials who should be monitoring them. Last week, Florida regulators issued an emergency order requiring those pharmacies to complete a survey about exactly how they compound drugs and how much material […]
University of Florida (UF) cheerleaders will no longer be allowed to perform aerial stunts or tumbles during football games. UF administrators say the decision was not made lightly but the timing is interesting. Three days before the announcement was made in November, a cheerleader for the Orlando Magic fell off […]
