Drug Recall Lawyer Blog

Here are this week’s stories:

• Medtronic: Medtronic reported that it paid $15.7 million to U.S. doctors in the first 3 months of 2010. Payments were for consulting fees and royalties. This report comes well in advance of the new law requiring disclosure beginning in 2013. See Medtronic’s searchable database of payments.
• Digitek: A request for a class certification was recently denied in the Digitek MDL. The MassTortDefense Blog has an update.
• PediaCare Recall: over 100,000 bottles of PediaCare, formerly manufactured by Johnson & Johnson (and, still being manufactured in their facility), have been recalled. This is a precautionary recall, based on the known problems with the J&J manufacturing facility.
• AstraZeneca and Social Media: Here is AstraZeneca’s take on the transparency/social media issue.
• Generic Drugs: The Supreme Court asks Obama’s administration for an opinion as to whether generic drug manufacturers can be sued for inadequate labeling that matches labeling of brand-name drugs. Here is the Eighth Circuit’s opinion, deciding that generic drug manufacturers can be held liable.
• Celebrities in the News: Dennis Quaid is bringing public awareness to injuries caused by pharmaceutical companies. He settled with the hospital on the heparin overdose of his children, but now he’s going after the pharmaceutical company, Baxter Healthcare Corp.
• More on Whistleblowing: Wyeth (through Pfizer) is accused of illegally promoting its kidney transplant drug for other organs and specifically among African-Americans, who have greater risks associated wit the drug.

Here are this week’s stories:

• FDA: The FDA is changing the medical device approval process. See the FDA announcement (HT: Eye on FDA).
• FDA II: Little progress on more FDA independence and power in drug safety reviews (An appropriate lament by Tom Lamb).
• Heparin: Congressional examination into the contaminated Heparin debacle (HT: FiercePharma).
• Tylenol Recall: Seems we just went through this. Here’s another one, affecting infant/children Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl. See the recall notice.
• Pain Pumps: Drug and Device Law Blog’s view of the recent MDL denial.

Happy Monday!

Defective Heparin lawsuits, a blood thinner manufactured by Baxter Healthcare, will finally go on trial in November, 2010. The recalled batches of Heparin killed at least 81 people according to the FDA from late 2007 to early 2008, and they caused injuries and sickness to hundreds more. The drugs caused severe allergic reactions because one of the component ingredients was replaced by over-sulfated chondroitin sulfate. That ingredient mimics the properties of Heparin. It was obtained by Baxter from a Chinese supplier, and that supplier’s facilities were determined to be deficient by the FDA. Furthermore, evidence obtained in discovery indicates that the chondroitin sulfate was intentionally used as a cheaper alternative, despite the life-threatening injuries it can cause.

The Heparin lawsuits are consolidated in an MDL in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, and case selection will start around May of 2010.

For more information on Heparin, see Heparin Allergic Reaction Lawyers.