Posted in Congress, Consumer Protection, Health, Litigation, Pharmaceuticals, Product Safety on June 26, 2008 | No Comments »
Maybe, the founding fathers actually knew what they were doing when they set up a system of checks and balances that ensure that no one branch of our government can become too powerful. We see examples all the time where the President and Congress clash over issues or where the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in [...]
Posted in Consumer Protection, Health, Pharmaceuticals, Product Safety on June 19, 2008 | 2 Comments »
If the British recognize that the drug propoxyphene is too dangerous to prescribe to patients, what’s keeping Americans from realizing the same thing?
The U.K. began a phased withdrawal of Darvocet, which contains propoxyphene, from the British market in 2005, after the U.K. Committee on Safety of Medicines recommended that they do so. In its report, [...]
Posted in Health, Pharmaceuticals, tagged codeine, Health on June 3, 2008 | No Comments »
Are you or is someone you know taking codeine to relieve pain? Then some new information in Public Citizen’s Worst Pills, Best Pills June newsletter will be of interest.
It turns out a substantial minority of people using codeine may be at risk of getting inadequate pain relief or experiencing serious side effects because of certain [...]
Posted in Congress, Consumer Protection, Health, Litigation, Pharmaceuticals, Product Safety, tagged celebrities, Dennis Quaid, drug safety, FDA, Heparin on May 14, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Photo by Bridgette Blair
Taking a mislabeled drug or using a defective medical device is a dangerous thing. Just ask actor Dennis Quaid and his wife, Kimberly.
In November 2007, their newborn twins were given a massive overdose of Heparin, an anticoagulant drug. The twins were supposed to receive another drug that would ease the intravenous administration [...]
Posted in Health, Pharmaceuticals, tagged contraception, FDA, Ortho-Evra on May 8, 2008 | No Comments »
When Johnson & Johnson received approval from the FDA in November 2001 for Ortho-Evra, a contraceptive patch, the company claimed its product would have two key advantages over existing oral contraceptives:
1) A constant delivery of hormones
2) Improvements in compliance compared to the daily dosing of oral contraceptives
It sounded like a great deal. Women could wear [...]
Posted in Health, Pharmaceuticals on April 29, 2008 | No Comments »
Kudos to the Association of American Medical Colleges for pushing to stem the influence of drug and medical device makers on college campuses. In a set of recommendations released this week, the association called for an end to the industry practice of offering gifts, travel and other perks to students and staff at the nation’s [...]
Posted in Health, Pharmaceuticals, Product Safety on April 28, 2008 | No Comments »
Developing a product that could be used as a blood substitute — one that has a long-shelf life and doesn’t require refrigeration or cross-matching — would be a great medical advance. Imagine the use of it in battlefield M.A.S.H. units or in times of natural or man-made disasters. But a new study by researchers from [...]
Posted in Health, Pharmaceuticals, Product Safety on April 16, 2008 | 2 Comments »
There was a scathing indictment of Merck in yesterday’s Journal of the American Medical Association. Sadly, it’s not a great shock to hear that the pharmaceutical company held back important information about deaths related to Vioxx or that it practiced widespread scientific fraud. David Brown’s story, “Maker of Vioxx is accused of deception,” in the [...]
Posted in Congress, Health, Pharmaceuticals on April 11, 2008 | No Comments »
It seems some pharmaceutical and medical device companies are promising that they will soon voluntarily start making public the grants and monies they provide to doctors and nonprofit organizations for things such as conferences and continuing education seminars. For the pharma and medical device industries, the writing was on the wall: Start disclosing on your [...]
Posted in Health, Pharmaceuticals on April 10, 2008 | No Comments »
The Food and Drug Administration is bringing in a Wake Forest University cancer specialist to be it’s chief scientist, a new position created to help restore some credibility at the agency. Media General’s Sean Mussenden writes about Dr. Frank Torti’s appointment in his story, “North Carolina cancer doctor named number two at FDA.” Torti certainly [...]
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