– Baxter International Inc., which recalled its blood thinner heparin amid reports of allergic reactions and deaths in 2008, faces at least 30 lawsuits in Chicago by injured people or their estates. As many as 300 product-liability complaints may be filed in the Illinois state court, according to plaintiffs’ attorney…
Once the power blinked out, Althea LaCoste’s lungs were on their own. She struggled to breathe without the help of a respirator, and even a team of nurses hand-bagging air into her ailing lungs couldn’t save her, according to court documents. LaCoste, 73, died before she could be evacuated from…
A student athlete and his parents are suing his doctors and hospitals nearly a year after a flesh-eating bacteria led to the amputation of his legs. Steven Haxton, 19, and his parents have filed medical-negligence lawsuits against doctors for Ohio Health Corp., Riverside Methodist Hospital and Ohio State University Medical…
The maker of a popular treatment for severe acne will get a new trial, 10 months after the New Jersey Appellate Division struck down a $2.6 million verdict against it. Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc., maker of Accutane, is alleged to have caused inflammatory bowel disease in some of the drug’s users in…
A member of the science team for NASA’s 2008 Phoenix Mars Lander mission has sued one of the mission’s co-investigators, Samuel Kounaves, alleging sexual harassment. Research assistant Suzanne Young was part of a Tufts University group that helped build the experiments to analyze and characterize the chemical composition of the…
Byetta (exenatide) is a type 2 diabetes drug that is used to control blood sugar levels. It is part of a class of medications known as incretin mimetics, which imitate natural hormones that lower blood glucose levels. Last month, the FDA expanded the use of Byetta to a stand-alone diabetes…
What happens to women after they get a cholecystectomy for gallstones after taking Yaz? Bile is an important part of digesting fats, and following Yaz gallbladder removal surgery, problems can occur such as bloating and diarrhea. Bile is still produced by the liver, but now bile is continuously released in…
A federal appeals court reinstated more than 100 lawsuits against drug companies filed by women or their surviving relatives who claimed that hormone replacement therapy caused breast cancer. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis overturned a 2008 district court ruling that had blocked almost all of…
The FDA has warned Amylin Pharmaceuticals that they have made false and misleading statements about the diabetes drug Byetta. The FDA letter was sent to Amylin Pharmaceuticals, alerting the company that federal regulators were aware of statements made by representatives that provided misleading or false information about the benefits of…
Amgen Inc. and Johnson & Johnson face a review of their top-selling anemia drugs by an advisory panel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA will ask its advisers to evaluate whether lower doses would avoid increased risks of blood clots and heart attacks in patients with chronic…