Archive for the 'Drug Company Lawsuits' Category
December 30th, 2011 by Admin
Actos is a drug for people with Type 2 diabetes. People with this disease have trouble controlling the sugar levels in their blood, and the active ingredient in Actos is pioglitazone, which helps ameliorate this problem. When Avandia, another Type 2 diabetes drug, was found to have serious side effects, Actos began to be prescribed as much as Avandia.
Now studies as well as real cases are showing that there are also some serious Actos side effects. At first these were heart problems such as heart attack, heart disease, and heart failure. Now, the FDA has added another Actos side effect to the list: bladder cancer.
If you or a loved one took Actos and were injured by the drug, you can find out about an Actos lawsuit if you suffered some or any of these injuries:
- Congestive heart failure
- bladder cancer
- heart attack
- heart disease
- rhabdomyolysis (damage to the kidnies)
- liver damage
- bone fracture
If you believe that Actos caused your injuries, you must be aware of time limits on any Actos lawsuits. You have legal rights but you can lose your rights to compensation. Find out about an Actos lawsuit if you think you have a case involving Actos.
June 25th, 2011 by Admin
Hydroxycut class action
Hydroxycut has nine lives. After the FDA decided to remove the weight loss drug from the market in 2009, a Hydroxycut class action lawsuit is still pending, and the product is still on the shelves in big name retailers like Walmart.
Hydroxycut is made by Iovate Health Sciences, which markets the drug as “clinically proven” to help people lose weight, and lose it fast. It also advertises the drug as having no unwanted side effects. The label claims Hydroxycut’s wonder powers are backed by science. There is absolutely no evidence for any of this. There is no clinical proof whatsoever, claims the Hydroxycut class action lawsuit. The product has no science backing its safety, much less the efficacy. In fact, one study showed that participants taking the diet drug lost weight at a slower rate than people taking the placebo!
Original Hydroxycut formulations included now-banned ephedra. Ephedra triggered heart attacks and was linked to at least one death. The next formula included something called garcinia cambogia. That’s an Asian fruit (also found in Africa) used to beef up the meals of poor people, kind of like a filler. Again, no clinical proof it helps people lose weight.
The newest ingredients in Hydroxycut is caffeine and herbs! Does nothing more than a cup of tea. They put a disclaimer on their website stating their weight-loss claims have not been evaluated by the FDA. The FDA has no authority over diet supplements unless somebody dies. Yes, somebody has to die before the FDA takes note and a Hydroxycut class action can go forward.
May 15th, 2011 by Admin
A Depakote class action was filed March 22, 2011 in Wisconsin on behalf of parents whose children suffered severe birth defects. The Depakote lawsuit alleges makers of the drug failed to adequately research the side effects of the drug when taken by pregnant women. A large number of birth defects have been reported in cases where women took Depakote during pregnancy, alleges the class action lawsuit.
Depakote is an antisepileptic medication available by prescription only. It was first approved by the FDA in 1978 and is now manufactured by Abbott Laboratories. It’s used to treat some forms of epilepsy. The Depakote class action claims that Abbott Laboratories allegedly failed to fully research the Depakote side effects, especially in pregnant women. The lawsuit also claims the drug company also failed to warn doctors and women about the Depakote side effects they did know about.
The Depakote class action was filed by Myles Brumfield, a man who lives in Fairview Heights, Wisconsin. He filed the suit on behalf of himself and dozens others who claim their children were harmed by Depakote during their mother’s pregnancy. The suit claims that the main ingredient is is known to cause severe birth defects when taken during the first three months of pregnancy. That ingredient is valproic acid.
April 24th, 2011 by Admin
Topamax, generically known as Topiramate, has been linked to an increased risk of birth defects if taken by the mother during pregnancy. There is a Topamax lawsuit because of this link, which is only recently emerging into the public realm.
A medical journal by the name of Neurology published a study almost three years ago, suggesting this link in a survey. The survey found an eleven times higher rate of cleft palate and cleft lip birth defects in women who took the drug during pregnancy. The study also found that babies whose mothers took Topamax during pregnancy were 14 times more likely to have genital defects.
Topamax is manufactured by Ortho-McNeil Neurologics, which is a division of Johnson & Johnson. It was first approved as an anticonvulsant, used for treatment of epilipsy, but was approved in 2004 for treatment of migraine symptoms as well. The generic form became available in 2006, and is called topiramate. There are alternative epilepsy drugs available, which do not carry the high risk of birth defects associated with Topamax.
Based on current data, a Topamax lawsuit is expected and in some states is already underway. Potential Topamax class action lawsuits are now being reviewed by lawyers.
February 28th, 2011 by Admin
Fosomax is an osteoporosis drug that has recently been linked to atypical fractures after long term use. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported a link between women who had taken Fosomax for more than five years, and atypical thigh fractures. The Fosomax side effects are unsettling for some, disturbing for those who have long term use of the drug in their past.
Atypical fractures in this case are femur fractures in what is considered the strongest part of the bone. The fracture can happen suddenly and without warning, so is a particularly serious Fosomax side effect. The Canadian study mentioned above found one or two women out of one thousand participants suffered the atypical leg injury, or femur fracture.
February 20th, 2011 by Admin
The FDA has issued a Class I recall for an implantable infusion pump that had been associated with at least eight deaths since 1996. The Medtronic pump recall affects the SynchroMed II and SynchroMed EL units, sold for dissemination of pain medication and treatment for neurological disorders.
The problem with the Medtronic pumps is that in the action of refilling the device. If the doctor inserts the refill needle into the pump but doesn’t push it all the way in so that it hits the needle stop, problems occur. The needle can actually fill the medicine into pockets around the reservoir instead of into the reservoir. The pump refill error will cause the medicine to go into the subcutaneous layer of the patient’s skin. This can cause overdose.
The FDA issued the Medtronic pump recall as a Class I, meaning the most serious form of recall. These recalls involve serious injury or death, as stated above. The Medtronic pump recall was issued after such facts as a 1 in 10,000 problem with the drug refills, and the fact that eight people have died from this problem since 1996.
There already was a warning on the label of the SynchroMed II and SynchroMed EL models, but new labeling will include information about the FDA warning and its advice on patient management in case of a drug refill error. Medtronic has always included reminders on both the pump and the refill kit about being careful when refilling the pump. The FDA sent what’s called a correction letter, which is to designate that are ordering a product label correction, which in this case with the severity of outcome should a pump refill error occur, is a Class I recall.
Medtronic isn’t pulling the implant infusion pumps from the shelves, but rather relabeling them to warn doctors to be careful not to miss the proper target when using a needle to refill the pumps.
January 17th, 2011 by Admin
GlaxoSmithKline announced today that it will be setting aside billions of dollars to fight mounting lawsuits over its top selling diabetes drug Avandia. The United States and Britain have faced a surge in GlaxoSmithKline lawsuits over the past few months, prompting the drug giant to add to its already substantial legal defense fund.
Last summer (2010), GlaxoSmithKline had already announced billions of dollars, to the tune of $2.36 billion, to be saved for costs of GlaxoSmithKline lawsuits due to Federal investigations over Avandia as well as antidepressant Paxil. Now, just six months later, they find they need to add to the fund. The original sum for fighting legal battles and for aiding the investigations into alleged off label marketing charges, was $2.36 billion. Now, the total legal accounts totals $5.76 billion. That’s a whopping sum, even for a drug company giant like GlaxoSmithKline.
Avandia is a leading diabetes drug, but in 2007 it was discovered in a scientific study that it may raise risk of heart attack by as much as 43%. Thousands of patients have sued GlaxoSmithKline, with the number of GlaxoSmithKline lawsuits growing every month.
The money set aside for GlaxoSmithKline lawsuits, announced in today’s papers, just about wipes out the company’s 2010 fourth quarter profits. As a result, shares fell in today’s markets. The company faces other legal woes, such a ongoing investigations by the United States over another drug, Paxil.
Paxil is an antidepressant which has serious side effects. The US government is investigating whether GlaxoSmithKline promoted off-label uses for the drug, as well as whether they made payments to doctors in exchange for promoting the drug.
January 12th, 2011 by Admin
Birth control lawsuits have been prevalent in the news for at least the past couple of years now. Ever since Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella came on the market, the popular oral contraceptives have been controversial. These drugs contain drospirenone, which is a progestin that blocks the effects of male hormones in the body. The generic form, Ocella, is also under review as birth control lawsuits mount in almost every state plus Canada.
The question is whether taking Yaz, Yasmin or Ocella raises the risk of venous thromboembolism, or blood clots. The “fourth generation” birth control pills have allegedly been linked to higher rates of blood clots in women taking them. Class action lawsuits have been forming in just about every state, and the Canadian legal system has seen case after case as well. Over two million prescriptions were filled in 2009 in Canada alone.
This new generation of birth control pills are different from the Pill introduced in the 1970s because they contain progestin. Specifically, the progestin contained is called drospirenone. Birth control lawsuits over Yaz are actually over what drospirenone does to the potassium levels in a woman’s body. Potassium levels are increased as a result of taking Yaz, Yasmin or Ocella. This can be dangerous for many high-risk types, and the FDA has actually warned the makers of Yaz and Yasmin, Bayer, that high serum potassium levels is dangerous. It can cause hyperkalemia, which can be deadly.
In four years, more than fifty deaths were attributed to Yaz and Yasmin in the United States alone. Now, however, some are reporting that they fear women will be scared off oral contraceptives because of media attention to the birth control lawsuits over Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella. Especially in Canada, they fear a “pill scare” and allege that these fourth generation pills are no more dangerous than other types of oral contraceptives.
December 17th, 2010 by Admin
Fentanyl is an opioid available in prescription only form. It’s used to treat chronic pain and is 100 times more powerful than morphine. It’s often given in the form of a skin patch, as it is easily absorbed through the skin. Sold under the brand name of Duragesic as well as many other brands, the Fentanyl patch is very effective as a pain killer but also extremely addictive as well. But that’s not why there are dozens of Fentanyl overdose lawsuit proceedings taking place in the United States today.
Yes, people are overdosing on Fentanyl, but not because of any choices they themselves made as far as taking the drug. The Fentanyl overdoses occurred because some batches of patches were faulty. The bad fentanyl patches caused too much of the drug to flow into the patients’ system, causing overdose. Fentanyl will cause the respiratory system to shut down, followed by death.
Johnson & Johnson and subsidiaries are being sued in not just one Fentanyl overdose lawsuit. Suits claim that the makers of the drug knew about the possible risks but marketed and sold it anyway. So far, millions of dollars have been awarded to families of patients who died as a result of Fentanyl overdose.
In one instance, 38 year old Janice DiCosolo died while taking Fentanyl through the patch system. In the subsequent Fentanyl overdose lawsuit, her family was awarded 16.5 million dollars. She was using a Duragesic patch, which was recalled in 2004.
Before that, a Florida man had died in 2003 as a result of Fentanyl overdose. He had chronic hip pain resulting from an accident, and was taking Fentanyl via the patch system as well. He was also wearing Duragesic, which delivers a gel form of Fentanyl. He also overdosed and died, and was the first Fentanyl overdose lawsuit.
In some cases, a variation on the Fentanyl overdose lawsuit above, family members sue those responsible for illegally supplying the drug to the victim of the overdose. For example, a mother of a man who overdosed and died from the Fentanyl patch is suing the man’s father. The Fentanyl taken by the deceased was actually prescribed to the man’s father, who supplied his son with the drug to help relieve pain caused by injuries.
December 14th, 2010 by Admin
A Diabetes drug class action has resulted from a study that liks the drug Avandia to heart problems. The problems, which specifically are higher risk of heart attack, may have been known to GlaxoSmithKline long before the news was made public, hence the Diabetes drug class action. The government report issued in February of 2010 hints that GlaxoSmithKline knew of heart attack risks years before the news went public.
News of the Diabetes drug which led to a class action lawsuit was made public after a Senate Finance Committee report was issued in February 2010. The report, which was several hundred pages long, criticized the FDA for not heeding concerns filed by its own staff.
Avandia has been linked to over 80,000 heart attacks over several years, since it came onto the market. This was known in 2007, three years ago. The issue was first raised as far back as 1999. The Diabetes drug class action was based on the fact that GlaxoSmithKline attempted to minimize the negative information, which was damaging to the product Avandia. They hired physicians who focused on findings that made it less clear that Avandia was linked to increased cardiovascular activity, or heart attacks.
The active ingredient in Avandia, rosiglitazone, was found in 2008 by the FDA to be connected to increase risk of heart attack. Studies at the time, which tested Avandia on human patients, were called upon to be stopped, as unethical and exploitative to the subjects. Not until July 2010 were the studies halted. The long-term studies were halted by the FDA. The studies had been ordered by the FDA itself in 2007, to study the safety of the drug after concerns were raised. The study was to establish harm, which is normally conducted on lab animals, not humans.
While the study is halted but not stopped altogether, the FDA also mulls whether to put stronger warning labels on the product and to limit who can take the Diabetes drug. The study was slowing down anyway, since only around 1400 participants had signed up, whereas the study called for 16,000.
Actos is a drug for people with Type 2 diabetes. People with this disease have trouble controlling the sugar levels in their blood, and the active ingredient in Actos is pioglitazone, which helps ameliorate this problem. When Avandia, another Type 2 diabetes drug, was found to have serious side effects, Actos began to be prescribed as much as Avandia.
