According to a recent report by HealthToday.com, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration believes certain commonly-used drugs that should be more difficult to obtain. Painkillers such as Lortab and Vicodin contain hydrocodone (a synthetic opiate) which is often abused and highly addictive; tighter controls on these types of prescriptions may be a good way to
Legal Issues
Johnson and Johnson $2.2B Settlement for Illegal Marketing, Corruption
As of November 4th, Johnson & Johnson agreed to a $2.2 billion deal in the settlement of pending criminal and civil charges that “alleged the healthcare giant illegally marketed its Risperal antipsychotic [along with Invega and Natrecor], and also paid kickbacks to physicians and Omnicare, the largest nursing home/pharmacy [company in the US,] to…
NY Times – Toyota Settles Fatal Crash Caused by Accelerator Defect
NY Times – In Oklahoma, a lawsuit surrounding a fatal car accident that injured an 82 year old woman and left a 70 year old woman named Barbara Schwarz dead, was settled on Friday between Toyota and the families of the two women involved. For the first time ever, a jury found Toyota responsible for…
PhRMA unhappy with Maine’s new drug import law
As reported by FDA News, the state of Maine has passed a law that green lights the use of imported prescription drugs through internet pharmacies. The new law goes against past federal restrictions on drug imports that were established in order to inhibit the sale and use of medication that did not meet the federal…
FDA won’t say which drugs on the market were approved based on fraudulent research
This shows that the FDA is more interested in protecting pharmaceutical companies than patients. Note how Woodcock doesn’t want to force new trials because that requires human experimentation, which has risk. A smarter regulator would realize that the risks increase in proportion to the size of the user base of the drug. And allowing any…
Pay to Delay vs. Generic Liability
So, the Supreme Court will decide two interesting cases. The one below will decide whether or not a brand name manufacturer can simply pay generic companies not to bring generic drugs to market:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators are pressing the Supreme Court to stop big pharmaceutical corporations from paying generic drug competitors to delay
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AAJ on Generic Preemption
Here’s a little more in-depth analysis of the generic drug argument before SCOTUS:
Andre Mura, litigation counsel at the Center for Constitutional Litigation in Washington, D.C., said the government’s argument was troubling. “There were suggestions that the FDA shouldn’t be second-guessed, but as the Court said in Wyeth v. Levine, the FDA approval process
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FDA Gives up on Graphic Cigarette Warnings
On the one hand it’s disappointing to see them give up the fight. On the other, at least this won’t lead to a SCOTUS ruling that strips the FDA of more power. The fear of such a ruling is why I suspect the FDA gave up.
(Reuters) – The government has dropped its push for
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Brand-name drug makers are not happy about Alabama Supreme Court ruling
Back in January the Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling that enabled individuals who took generic drugs to sue the brand-name manufacturer. Not surprisingly, the brand-name companies are not happy:
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Brand name makers of a drug used to treat acid reflux and other digestive problems today asked the Alabama Supreme Court to
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Will health insurance co be on the hook for hepatitis claims?
Way back in 2010, I wrote a blog post about the “prison rape” of one of the companies that manufactured the drugs improperly administered by Dr. Dipak Desai. Now another defendant is on the hook:
Officials with Health Plan of Nevada knew in the late 1990s about Desai’s poor reputation after a doctor who was
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