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Pfizer announced today that it is recalling a over million birth control pills after it recently found out about an error in the packaging. Some of the packages of Lo/Ovral and Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol contained too many or too few active birth control pills. These pills were marketed in the US by Akrimax Pharmaceuticals or Akrimax Rx Products.

Typically the 28 day packages contain 21 active birth control pills and 7 placebo pills. Some of the packages were found to have more than 7 placebo pills while others were found to have less than 7 placebo pills. In total 28 lots of the birth control were recalled totalling over 1 million packages.

Too many placebo pills could mean women will develop unintended pregnancies. Patients with affected lots have been advised to use other, non-hormonal, contraceptives until they can take their normal birth control as usual.

To find out if you have one of the affected lots click here.

Our firm is deeply involved in two active birth control litigations, Yaz/Beyaz/Yasmin/Ocella and NuvaRing. Currently the Yaz litigation in both the Multidistrict Litigation and the New Jersey state consolidated litigation are on hold pending possible settlement negotiations.

Our firm is now litigation hundreds of suits against Johnson & Johnson for defective metal-on-metal implants. Their subsidiary, DePuy, marketed these implants to doctors as safer and longer lasting then other types of implants on the market. When failing DePuy ASR and Pinnacle hips were reported in England and Australia, DePuy blamed doctors for poor implantation. However, the truth came out on DePuy ASR hips when Johnson & Johnson announced a complete recall.

With the recent Risperdal court decision in December, 2011, we see the same corporate behavior: a judge has upheld a $327 million civil penalty against Johnson & Johnson for blatantly overstating the safety and effectiveness its antipsychotic drug. There have been similar whistleblower suits in other states for kickbacks, over-promotion and illegal marketing. Much of the damaging evidence was in emails, and we expect the same to occur in the DePuy ASR and Pinnacle litigations. The over-promotion of dangerous psychotic drugs is particularly harmful to the elderly, where drug companies convince nursing homes to use these drugs for much more minor ailments. Also, every taxpayer is hurt as Medicaid and Medicare is getting swindled for inappropriate medication.

Another bellwhether trial has come to an end and it resulted in a defense verdict. Clifford Straka was 72 when he was prescribed levaquin to treat a flare up of asthma when 10 days later he was diagnosed with achilles tendonitis and eventually bilateral achilles tendon ruptures. He was prescribed prednisone as well.

The jury found that the defendants had not failed to adequately warn the plaintiff's doctor of the risks of tendon ruptures. The plaintiff's doctor, Dr. Katayoun Baniriah, testified that she had never read the warnings in the levaquin label about Achilles tendon ruptures.

So far there have been four bellwether trials in the levaquin litigation between both the federal multi district litigation and the state consolidated litigation in New Jersey. There have been three defense veridicts and one plaintiff verdict.

Our Yaz litigation team was just informed late in the afternoon on January 27, 2012, that the Honorable Brian Martinotti has stayed all litigation in New Jersey state courts. Pursuant to Case Management Order- 31, he has ordered that parties participate in good faith mediation as part of the federal multidistrict litigation. All potential injured Yaz users will be affected by any future resolution, and our firm will consult with injured users on what this may portend. In a very similar and recent litigation, the Ortho Evra birth control patch made by Johnson & Johnson, both Paul and David Rheingold had J & J's settlement counsel come to our office to conduct private settlement negotiations. We will use our knowledge from those birth control cases toward the resolution on the Yaz cases.

Our firm is no stranger to Bayer. The German multinational with a strong presence in the United States, has been the subject of some of the largest drug product litigation in the last decade. They quickly resolved many rhabdomyolysis claims for their withdrawn "Baycol" cholesterol lowring drug. Their liability centered around over-promoting a drug which actually didn't work well, so they told doctors to increase the dosing. And this in turn led to devastating muscle injuries. More recently, Bayer has been called before the FDA for the birth control products Yasmin, Yaz and Beyaz for the increased clot risk posed by the birth control-which they knew of but claimed it was just as safe as othe contraceptives.

There failed products don't just come from the drug world. They have offered a settlement nearing one billion dollars for crops tainted by a genetically modified strain. Litigation was in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas. The genetically modified variety cross-bred with and "contaminated" rice lands. Juries awarded farmers about $54 million in total compensatory and punitive damages before Bayer finally agreed to a global settlement

In December, 2011, news sources reported that yet another medical company has agreed to a monumental fine based upon a the U.S. Justice Department investigation. The world's largest heart device manufacturer, Medtronic Inc., created recurring pattern of paying kickbacks to doctors who used their devices. The voluntary settlement by Medtronic was just another "cost of doing business" which also involved prosecution in Minnesota and California. We commend the whistleblowers who reported ths violations of the False Claims Act. They were rewarded with a $3.96 million from the federal recovery.

The company caused false claims to be submitted to Medicare and Medicaid by using two post-market studies and two device registries as vehicles to pay participating physicians illegal kickbacks to induce them to implant its pacemakers and defibrillators, the Justice Department said in the statement.

A 2005 bus crash in western New York has been resolved before trial. There were four deaths and a significant number of personal injuries. The bus was carrying a youth hockey team through New York near Rochester. The settlement came from insurance carriers for the bus and trucks involved in the accident. Police investigators suspected bus driver fatigue. The driver had been on the road for many hours and there was missing paperwork for his time in the days prior to the accident. This scenario is very similar to a rash of recent bus accidents due to driver fatigue, speeding and improper maintenance. Bus owners do little to follow federal and state guidelines, although tighter monitoring by government agencies in 2011 has lead to grounding some companies. Passengers have no way of knowing what danger bus drivers pose, and we commend any agency who uses all possible regulations to fine dangerous bus companies.

A recent suit was filed against Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn for an 88-year-old Jewish Holocaust survivor. Joseph Skakun died at age 88 this past April, and it's alleged that improper reading of diagnostic tests, improper treatment and failure to monitor the Holocaust survivor caused his death. The negligent hospital death is reminiscent of Andy Warhol's death linked to medical malpractice following a simple gallbladder surgery.

The irony with Skakun's death is that he escaped death many times in his life, starting with the 1941 massacre and utter destruction of his Jewish hometown in Poland. Surving through World Ward II forced him to assume many fake identities, including at one point pretending to be a Nazi.