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Personal Injury Lawyers

Archive for March, 2010

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15
Mar

Drug companies turning to private physicians to promote products

Drug companies are finding ways to circumvent the rules and get more off-label uses for medications…
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/14, Fauber) reported, “For years, drug companies sought out influential university doctors with impressive credentials to bring their message to other doctors and persuade them to write prescriptions for their products.” But as “the practice of doing promotional speaking for drug companies has come under fire in recent years,” more “medical schools…have developed conflict-of-interest policies that ban such talks.” Companies have, therefore, “been forced to back away from that approach,” turning to private physicians instead, who are not regulated by conflict-of-interest policies. As a result, US Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) “has co-introduced legislation requiring companies to release payments to doctors to highlight conflicts of interest for the public.”

Popularity: 18% [?]

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10
Mar

Jaw-damage suits against Novartis allowed to proceed

The AP (3/8) reported, “A federal judge in Nashville has refused to dismiss 40 lawsuits against a Swedish-based pharmaceutical company accused of failing to warn patients that two of its drugs can cause severe deterioration of the jaw. U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell’s ruling last week is the latest blow to Novartis Corp. The company is facing lawsuits from hundreds of patients around the country over its bone-strengthening drugs Aredia and Zometa.”

Popularity: 21% [?]

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10
Mar

Even small levels of lead exposure may damage children’s kidneys

Parents, you will want to heed this warning  about lead. You can find more information about preventing lead poisoning in children, by going to the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) web site.

The Los Angeles Times (3/8, Worth) reports that, according to a study published in January in the Archives of Internal Medicine, “even small levels of lead exposure may be damaging to children’s kidneys.” After examining “the records of 769 healthy youth ages 12 to 20 with average blood lead levels of 1.5 micrograms per deciliter (well below the 10 microgram ‘threshold’ of concern per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention),” investigators discovered that “children with levels of just 2.9 micrograms per deciliters had worse kidney function than those with lower levels.” In fact, “with each doubling of lead levels, the filtration capacity dropped.”

Popularity: 20% [?]

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10
Mar

Hartford Courant calls for repeal of confidentiality provision on hospital medical errors

The Hartford Courant (3/8) editorialized that Connecticut’s “General Assembly erred in 2004 when it tampered with a law designed to make public such hospital mistakes as inadvertent cuts during surgery or serious falls.” As a result, “the confidentiality provision…now keeps most such mistakes secret,” but “patients have a right to know about hospital mistakes and what steps hospitals are taking to reduce medical errors.” Under draft legislation “to repeal the confidentiality provision,” hospitals would disclose “all reported adverse events…not just those that are investigated.” The Courant concludes that “voluntary compliance and diligent attention to trying to reduce medical errors will work in hospitals’ favor.”

Popularity: 10% [?]

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10
Mar

Similar drug names, bottles cause thousands of mistakes annually

ABC World News (3/5, story 6, 2:55, Sawyer) reported on how some drug bottles look alike and how the FDA “said it gets thousands of reports of such mix-ups every year.” The FDA’s Dr. Gerald Pan said, “Today’s near-miss, today’s medication error that doesn’t cause harm to somebody could cause harm to someone tomorrow.” ABC noted the name-change for Kapidex (dexlansoprazole) last week, but “that still leaves several hundred sound-alike and lookalike drug combinations to go.”

Popularity: 12% [?]

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