News Archives
New Legislation Aims to Hold Foreign Manufacturers Accountable for Dangerous Products
A bipartisan bill named the Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act of 2009 was introduced in the U.S. Senate yesterday by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.). The bill will serve as a way to finally close legal loopholes that currently allow foreign manufacturers to escape accountability...
U.S. District Judge William Wilson, the federal judge overseeing the Hormone Replacement Multi-District Litigation (MDL) recently ordered thousands of court documents be unsealed relating to the medical ghostwriting practices of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. The documents show Wyeth played a major role in publishing 26 scientific articles over the course...
Avandia Again Linked with Liver Failure
In the July 22, 2009, edition of the peer-reviewed medical journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety researchers identified eleven cases of severe liver toxicity and deaths that were linked to the popular Type 2 diabetes drug Avandia (or rosiglitazone) manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. These cases were identified after review of Adverse Event...
HRT Use Linked to Increased Risk of Lung Cancer Death
In a new abstract study published in May of 2009 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, preliminary research revealed that women diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer following use of combination hormone replacement therapy had a 59% increased risk of death. Findings were based upon the landmark Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study of over...
The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (MDL Panel) has ruled today that all class action lawsuits pending across the country involving Chinese-manufactured drywall will be assigned to Judge Eldon Fallon, U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana located in New Orleans. The MDL Panel serves to coordinate...
On June 11, 2009, the FDA announced a Class I recall - a recall classification reserved for products whose continued use could lead to serious illness or death - of a small number of Medtronic Kappa and Sigma pacemakers. The recalled devices may fail due to a separation of wires that connect the electronic circuit to other pacemaker components,...
On June 11, 2009, the United States Senate overwhelmingly approved Senator Edward Kennedy's (D-Mass) Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act which will put tobacco regulation authority in the hands of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). President Obama has indicated he will sign the bill into law immediately when it hits his...
On June 2, 2009, a Jacksonville jury ordered R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to pay $30 million to Hilda Martin, the widow of Benny Martin, a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer in 1995 due to his addiction to nicotine. In apportioning fault for Benny Martin's death, the jury found the plaintiff 34% responsible and R.J. Reynolds 66% responsible. Mrs....
Due to its link to serious liver injuries and one death, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has advised that people should immediately stop using the dietary supplement, Hydroxycut. Hydroxycut products are dietary supplements that are marketed for weight-loss, as fat burners, as energy-enhancers, as low carb diet aids, and for water loss under...
A team of CPSC scientists, lawyers, engineers, and compliance staff provided a briefing to Congress recently over the safety of imported Chinese drywall. Earlier this year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission teamed up with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the Department of Health and Human...
