A class action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles accuses recalled Hydroxycut weight-loss products of causing deadly liver damage and other severe complications. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of anyone who consumed the now-banned supplements, claims the company failed to warn users of the risks of injury.…
The acne remedy Accutane, a synthetic form of vitamin A used to treat serious forms of acne that can cause scarring, has been the subject of extensive litigation because of a long list of side effects including inflammatory bowel disease, suicide, and birth defects. The U.S. manufacturer of Accutane, Hoffman…
Federal drug regulators warned consumers to stop using Zicam, a popular homeopathic cold remedy, because it could damage or destroy their sense of smell. The Food and Drug Administration received 130 reports from consumers and doctors of people losing their sense of smell after using one of the Zicam nasal…
The Eleventh Circuit ruled on Wednesday on an interesting and provocative case. In an unpublished opinion, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a trial court’s grant of summary judgment in a case in which the mother of a 17 year-old who committed suicide in 2000 sued Hoffman-La Roche, Inc. The plaintiff alleged…
A new diabetes drug — to be called Victoza if approved — works better than Byetta, a head-to-head clinical trial shows. Byetta is the first of the class of type 2 diabetes drugs called GLP-1 analogs. The drug takes advantage of the body’s own signaling system to increase insulin output…
The Bard® Composix® Kugel® Mesh Hernia Patch has been linked to serious, life-threatening side effects and has been voluntarily recalled by its manufacturer and in association with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). On January 8, 2008, a Federal Court judge expanded the scope of current hernia patch lawsuits…
Asbestos is a naturally occurring fiber that, when released into the air, can be inhaled or swallowed. Asbestos fibers are so small that they are not visible to the naked eye. Once they are inhaled, asbestos fibers stay in the body and, over the course of decades, lead to the…
Some eye doctors are still hoping that some of the lawsuits over a lens cleaner made by Bausch & Lomb will end up in court, so that the events that led to hundreds of fungal infection lawsuits will be aired publicly. That has not happened. Over the past year, the…
We reported on Byetta (exenatide) in August 2008, when the FDA issued a MedWatch email alert about six new cases of hemorrhagic pancreatitis and necrotizing pancreatitis that had been reported to FDA since an October 2007 “Dear Doctor” letter about Byetta and acute pancreatitis was sent to doctors in the…
An Oakland musician who was made a quadriplegic in a rollover crash four years ago won an $18.3 million verdict against Ford Motor Co. in federal court. Dax Pierson, 38, suffered severe spinal injuries when a Ford passenger van that the band was traveling in ran off an icy highway…