Law News
Zicam Not Alone in Reports of Side Effects
Zicam and hundreds of other homeopathic remedies are highly diluted drugs made from natural ingredients. They are really sold as treatments with explicit claims of medical benefit. Yet they don't require federal checks for safety, effectiveness or even the right ingredients.
FDA says it tied the drug to reports from 130 consumers who said they lost their sense of smell. The agency told Zicam's maker, Matrixx Initiatives, to stop marketing products that carry zinc glyconate. The agency said the drug must be tested for safety and benefit, like a conventional drug, before it is again marketed. And the FDA warned people not to use the Zicam products.
Zicam was deceptively marketed and paid $12 million in 2006 to settled with about 340 Zicam patients. But complaints by dozens of patients remain before the courts. Attorney Lynn Seithel represents more than 300 patients with Zicam claims. She says, "The FA warning this week validates what our clients have been saying."
Yaz & The New York Times
The attorneys at Feldman and Pinto are currently representing Plaintiffs who have taken the birth control pill known as Yaz. Recently, the New York Times released an article citing the dangerous health concerns associated with this popular contraceptive.
The article begins by highlighting the increased popularity Yaz has gained in the past year; the contraceptive is called the “go-to-drug” for women under 35. As of late, the company has received more criticism than praise, from consumers, lawyers and health administrators. Researchers have long understood that a contraceptive containing both estrogen and progesterone increases a woman’s risk of developing stokes and blood clots.
Paxil Related Birth Defects
The lawyers at Feldman and Pinto are evaluating possible cases for anyone who has experienced personal injuries after use of Paxil.
Paxil is an antidepressant, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, used for the treatment of depression and other psychiatric disorders. Since its release in 1992, the warning label for Paxil has changed to reflect the risk of birth defects in children whose mothers were taking Paxil and the increase risk of suicidal behavior in children and adults.
Early Cancer Diagnosis
The American Cancer Society has reported that cancer now accounts for nearly one in four deaths in the United States. In fact, an estimated 555,500 Americans died from cancer in the year 2002 and over half of those deaths were due to one of the following four cancers: lung, colorectal, prostate or breast. Other findings indicate that since 1991, overall cancer incidence and mortality rates declined at a rate of approximately 1.1 percent per year. “This progressive reduction in cancer incidence and mortality, now almost a decade in duration, is a triumph by any standard and a product of cancer prevention, early diagnosis, screening and improved cancer treatment programs widely utilized throughout the country,” wrote Robert C. Young, MD, president of the American Cancer Society and president of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.
Diabetic Footcare
Foot problems are among the leading causes of hospitalization for the 16 million people in the United States with diabetes. Hundreds of million of dollars are spent annually on treatment. It has been estimated that 15 percent of all diabetics will develop a serious foot problem at some time in their lives. The most common of these problems are infection, ulceration or gangrene (death of tissue), which can lead, in the most severe cases, to amputation of a toe, foot or leg.
Fines Unlikely to End Off-Label Drug Marketing
Pfizer was slapped recently with a record $2.3 billion in fines for illegally marketing some drugs, but critics say even that eye-popping total is unlikely to end the sometimes-dangerous practice of promoting drugs for unapproved uses. The penalty pales compared to the billion dollars or more in annual revenue that blockbuster drugs generate, and new government guidelines stir worry that the marketing of medicines for unapproved uses will become easier.
Pfizer Expected to Pay Record Settlement to U.S.
Before it completes its $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth by the end of this year, Pfizer also is expected to sign a $2.3 billion settlement with the federal government over charges it illegally promoted several of its drugs. The settlement would be the largest ever paid by a drug company for such activity. Federal investigators suspect Pfizer employees promoted several products for other uses, even though drug companies can only market their products for FDA-approved uses.
High Stakes for Merck in Litigation on Fosamax
Drug executives, product liability lawyers and Wall Street analysts are closely watching a jury trial in New York over medical problems associated with Fosamax, a drug from Merck that has been taken by millions of women to offset the bone loss associated with menopause. It is the first of about 900 state and federal cases pending against Merck in which plaintiffs claims that taking Fosamax caused them to develop a rare problem called osteonecrosis of the jaw. Dental surgery is one of the triggers for the condition that can break down jawbone tissue, causing the gums to fall away and expose bone that looks moth-eaten, oral surgeons say.
Bausch & Lomb Beats Back Lens-Cleaner Lawsuits
Bausch & Lomb, rocked by the worldwide recall of its flagship contact lens solution in 2006, has beaten back scientific claims blaming ReNu with MoistureLoc cleaner for a flurry of non-fungal eye infections. The optical products maker has already paid out more than $250 million to settle roughly 600 lawsuits linking MoistureLoc to a potentially blinding fungal infection known as fusarium keratitis. But a federal judge recently found that there is no reliable scientific basis for arguing that MoistureLoc caused another 1,024 lens wearers across the United States to contract assorted bacterial, viral and parasitic infections.
13 Years Later, Medical Malpractice Case Settled
The estate of a late Erie businessman is set to receive $806,714 in a medical malpractice case - 13 years after the estate sued Hamot Medical Center and three years after the estate won at trial. The estate is finally due the money in light of the state Supreme Court denying Hamot's final appeal. The man's estate sued Hamot in 1996 after he fell at the hospital and suffered a brain injury in 1994 and died at a residential rehabilitation center in 1996. The estate argued that Hamot's level of nursing care fell below acceptable standards, a contention that Hamot disputed for the last 13 years.
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