More Yasmin birth control lawsuits have made their way through the court system against the manufacturer Bayer. According to a recent report, Bayer has settled many cases and paid a reported $402 million setting aside another $600 million for future settlements. Approximately 11,000 lawsuits have been filed in the federal…
GlaxoSmithKline has settled with 38 state attorney generals for $90 million in connection with its unfair and deceptive promotion of a diabetes drug, Avandia. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum led the way in the allegations that GlaxoSmithKline marketed its brand-name medication, Avandia, to treat…
The New York Times has reported that long-time use of prescription antacid drugs can result in certain illnesses, including severe anemia, bone fracture and infections. The medications can be especially dangerous for older patients, who are urged to used them as briefly as possible. The Times cited the example of…
The United States Preventive Services Task Force has issued a draft statement recommending that healthy women should not take low doses of calcium or vitamin D supplements to prevent bone fractures. The group is an independent panel of experts in prevention and primary care and was appointed by the federal…
It was not long ago that Yaz and Yasmin ranked as one of the leading birth control pills on the market. They were able to corner a large share of the market in large part due to a successful ad campaign marketed towards women under 35 and promises to decrease…
Doctors are relying more and more on narcotic medications to treat patients’ increased complaints of chronic pain. However, while this might mean that more patients’ pain is being treated in the short-term, it has some potentially harmful long-term consequences. The longer patients remain on opiate medications, the less effective they…
In TV and movie trial dramas, we are always shown a jury hotly debating over the case facts, with one or two jurors holding out against the rest of the jury. However, in Illinois, in order for a jury verdict to stand it needs to be unanimous. This means that…
A Cook County wrongful death lawsuit involving the death of a 45 year-old woman was settled by the decedent’s estate for $1.35 million. The Illinois lawsuit dealt with claims of medical negligence on behalf of the defendant surgeon and the hospital where he as employed. Jerry Markbreit for the Estate…
Johnson & Johnson has announced that it will be dropping one of its medical devices from production – by the end of 2011, the company will cease manufacturing its drug-coated heart stents. The company explains its decision was due its decreasing market share in the heart stent category; Johnson &…
France’s Agence Francaise De Securite Sanitaire Des Produits De Sante (AFSSAPS) banned the use of Actors, a drug prescribed to control diabetes, due to concerns that it increases the risk of bladder cancer amongst patients taking the drug. Actors manufactured by Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical and is one of the pharmaceutical…