- Joe Saunders | May 30, 2006 10:17 AM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsThe title to this post is no joke. I found this on the Motley Fool website. Taser International has issued the following statement: "TASER International, Inc. ... announced today that ... a standard electrical discharge from a TASER brand device does not induce ventricular fibrillation, and that cocaine intoxication increases the safety margin even further." Maybe Taser's PR department...
- Joe Saunders | May 25, 2006 9:22 AM |
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MiscellaneousThere's a major problem in the agricultural fields of Florida. Yet, it goes practically unnoticed because those affected are migrant farmworkers who often don't speak much English. They pick our strawberries and tomatoes. They provide back breaking labor for sub standard wages. They often live in ramshackle trailers we wouldn't consider appropriate for farm animals. Most tragically, their...
- Joe Saunders | May 24, 2006 8:11 AM |
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MiscellaneousDrug maker Wyeth is expected to announce as early as today that a revised legal settlement, covering the most common damage claims for the diet drugs it once sold, has won final judicial approval. About 5.8 million people took Wyeth's drugs Redux or Pondimin before they were removed from the market in 1997. The drugs constituted the fenfluramine portion of the once popular fen-phen diet...
- Joe Saunders | May 23, 2006 8:18 AM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsThere's an interesting article published in Advertising Ageabout how Bausch & Lomb botched the crisis surrounding its $500 million contact lens solution products market. In spite of a public relations blitz in which the company took out full page advertisements in 12 major daily newspapers, Bausch & Lomb was slow to react to the public health problems surrounding its products. Because of their...
- Joe Saunders | May 23, 2006 8:10 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsCiting a growing number of deaths related to liver failure, the FDA has called for a stronger warning label for the antibiotic drug KetekThe FDA has received reports of 12 cases of acute liver failure, including the four deaths, in patients treated with Ketek, according to a copy of an FDA memo. FDA safety evaluators also uncovered 23 other cases where patients suffered serious liver injuries...
- Joe Saunders | May 22, 2006 8:55 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsWhile physicians say they're rare, Fosamax users can be susceptible to "dead jaw" disease or commonly known as jaw rot. Fosamax, an osteoporosis drug belonging to the bisphosphonate family, can lead to "dead jaw" syndrome -- a painful condition that causes ulcers, tooth loss and exposed bone. But while cancer patients appear more at risk, Dr. Bruce Pihlstrom of the National Institutes of Health...
- Joe Saunders | May 19, 2006 2:05 PM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsAs part of the CDC's investigation of Bausch & Lomb's eye contact solution ReNu with MoistureLoc, a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center doctor was able to grow the fusarium keratitis fungus from the contact lens solution. Dr. Deepinder Dhaliwal, the Director of Refractive Surgery at UPMC found the dangerous fungus within the contact lens solution and gave her results to the CDC.
- Joe Saunders | May 18, 2006 7:02 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsUS Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) has called on the maker of Ketek, Sanofi-Aventis, to produce its investigator as part of a probe of the company's handling of the antibiotic. The letter released last night by Mr. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, is the second one he has sent to the FDA about the drug, which is made by Sanofi-Aventis SA. He told the agency he wants to...
- Joe Saunders | May 17, 2006 7:20 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsThe FDA said yesterday that ReNu maker Bausch & Lomb failed to promptly report 35 cases of the fusarium keratitis infection. The failure to inform the FDA within a 30 day time period is part of a larger list of 20 violations the FDA listed after inspecting the Greensville, SC plant.
- Joe Saunders | May 16, 2006 10:20 PM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsI was quoted in today's Boston Globe as a result of Bausch & Lomb's decision to halt permanently the worldwide sales of its ReNu with MoistureLoc. As the paper stated, I think the decision confirms what we've suspected all along, namely, that the problem lies in the solution itself.
- Joe Saunders | May 15, 2006 9:37 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsIn spite of a sharp increase in fungal infections among users of ReNu with MultiPlus, Bausch & Lomb has not removed the eye contact solution product from store shelves. US health officials have now confirmed more than 120 cases of a potentially blinding eye infection that may be related to contact lens use.
- Joe Saunders | May 12, 2006 6:45 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsA new Merck & Co. study reveals that risk for heart attacks and strokes continues even when its use is discontinued. This risk continues for a year after use. In spite of the new study, Merck says it won't change its litigation strategy. Oh well, why be confused with the facts.
- Joe Saunders | May 11, 2006 10:22 AM |
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MiscellaneousA new research study appearing in the May 11th New England Journal of Medicine, refutes the oft-mentioned claim by some that frivolous lawsuits, especially medical malpractice claims lack merit. For this study, which appears in the May 11 New England Journal of Medicine, a panel of trained physicians reviewed 1,452 closed malpractice claims from five liability insurers to determine if a medical...
- Joe Saunders | May 10, 2006 6:13 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsAccording to the latest CDC data, the link between ReNu with Moisture Loc and the rare but dangerous fusarium keratitis fungus continues to grow sharply. The link between another ReNu product, ReNu Moisture Plus, grew, but more modestly. Of the 98 confirmed Fusarium keratitis cases for which the CDC has complete data, 93 people wore contact lenses and 59 used MoistureLoc, an increase of 27...
- Joe Saunders | May 09, 2006 6:14 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsFosamax, manufactured by Vioxx maker Merck & Co., is an osteoporosis drug highly touted by its manufacturer. The drug garnered $3.2 billion in 2005 sales but is now linked to osteonecrosis whereby users of Fosamax experience a rotting and death of the jaw bone. Fosamax, which contains the active compound bisphosphonate, increases bone mass and reduces the risk of fractures in postmenopausal...
- Joe Saunders | May 08, 2006 9:57 AM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsThe Orlando Sentinelran a revealing article on the Orlando Police Department's use of tasers during the past two years. An analysis of the data on Taser use showed that Orlando police have used Tasers against 1,243 people. The computer-assisted analysis, which also tracked 765 Taser cases through the criminal courts, showed that more than half of the people tased were neither violent nor...
- Joe Saunders | May 07, 2006 9:58 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsAccording to an article in the NY Times, a researcher hired by Bausch & Lomb has published a report indicating that the infection is not coming from the eye contact solution. The FDA and CDC have not commented directly on his findings. FDA officials declined to comment yesterday on Mr. Geiser's assessment. But the agency's Web site posted an update saying that while it continued to confirm...
- Joe Saunders | May 05, 2006 4:16 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsWith reports of the fusarium keratitis fungus appearing in Europe, the number of cases in Tennessee continues to mount. I haven't read a good explanation for this but the number of eye fungus infections associated with Bausch & Lomb's ReNu products is quite high in comparison with other states.
- Joe Saunders | May 04, 2006 3:31 PM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsNew cases of the fusarium keratitis fungus have been confirmed in Europe. The cases represent the first time the company has acknowledged European incidents of the infection, which has struck Bausch solution users in Asia and the U.S. The outbreak has led the company to halt shipments of one of its products, ReNu with MoistureLoc, in several countries and to scrutinize a manufacturing plant in...
- Joe Saunders | May 04, 2006 7:03 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsAs the days pass, the news continues to get worse for Bausch & Lomb. Initially, the company asked consumers to stop using one of their products, ReNu with MoistureLoc. In the intervening weeks, company execs tried to intimate that if there was a problem at all, it was restricted to the one product. Now that the CDC report comes out we know otherwise. Let's take a look a the CDC numbers: ...
- Joe Saunders | May 03, 2006 8:50 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsIn a conference call with investors, Bristol Myers Squibb has announced that it will no longer sell Tequin although it stopped short of saying that the product will be removed from store shelves. The decision comes on the heels of Public Citizen's call to ban the drug.
- Joe Saunders | May 03, 2006 8:47 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsThe relationship between the recent outbreak of fusarium keratitis and Bausch & Lomb's ReNu eye contact solution is becoming clearer as the CDC and the FDA continues its investigation. According to an article in Reuters, "The 57 percent share of cases preliminarily reported for the company's MoistureLoc formula is significantly and disproportionately higher than its U.S. market share of less...
- Joe Saunders | May 01, 2006 9:10 PM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsSi ud. ha estado usando la solución ReNu para sus lentes de contacto y ha experimentado una herida de los ojos, posiblemente podrÃa recibir compensación por su herida. Es muy importante que ud. consulte con un oftalmólogo inmediatamente. El doctor tiene que tomar una muestra de sus ojos para determinar si tiene el hongo fusarium keratitis. Favor de llamar a nuestra oficina para una...
- Joe Saunders | May 01, 2006 9:05 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeAccording to a study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, malfunctions in implantable cardioverter defibrillators, or ICDs, are on the rise. The device is designed to keep the heart pumping properly and efficiently. Between 1990 and 2002, a total of 2.25 million pacemakers and 415,780 ICDs were implanted in the U.S. Of the implanted pacemakers, 8,834 (4.6 per 1,000)...