The study also found an increase risk in transdermal patch birthcontrol as well, with women with 2.3 times more likely to have a VTE compared to users of combined oral contraceptives containing levonorgestrel and 7.9 times more likely than non users of hormonal contraceptives.
A copy of the article, which was published in the British Medical Journal in May 2012 can her found here.
Our firm represents hundreds of women who have suffered from injuries stemming from NuvaRing and other birth controls. If you have been injured after taking birth control please contact the attorneys at Rheingold, Valet, Rheingold, McCartney & Giuffra for a free consultation with an experienced drug injury attorney.
]]>As we often note, the victims of these civil and criminal for violating the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act are often women, children and the elderly. In this case Abbott heinously marketet a strong anti-seizure to disabled elderly people in nursing homes. Drug companies can only market drugs for FDA-approved conditions. Doctors ae allowed to prescribe drugs for "off-lable' use, but a company cannot do so. In this case, Abbott created special marketing crews who went to nursing homes and stated that the drug should be used for schizophrenia and dementia. Abbott created an entire campaign of using Depakote as a sedative. Federal law prevents intentional sedation, but Depakote had not yet been recognized by the federal government as an improper sedative.
Thankfully a brave and heroic whistleblower stepped forward, Meredith McCoyd. Her and three other whistleblowers should be commended for bringing an end to this methodical sedating of the elderly with dementia who had no idea about how they were being abused by Abbott for profits. To promote whistleblowing (federal laws were creating during the civil war to prevent profiteering), the whistleblowers will be handsomely rewarded-over $100 million will be split amongst them.
]]>"Our system for overseeing medical implants and other high risk devices is clearly broken and allows too many dangerous devices on the market," Lisa McGiffert, Director of Consumers Union's Safe Patient Project, said in a statement. "Tens of thousands of patients have been injured or died in recent years because current law fails to ensure medical devices are safe."
]]> Legislative ShortfallsAccording to the Consumers Union, the following areas need to be addressed by lawmakers in order to ensure that medical devices are safe.
Source: Market Watch, The Wall Street Journal, "Medical Device Bills Missing Critical Protections For Patients," 4/19/2012.
]]>One study reported in the British Medical Journal reported less than 30% of trials registered with clinicaltrials.gov are in compliance with the requirements already in place.
An article recently published in Pediatrics reported that only 29% of 2,385 pediatric clinical trials registered with clinicaltrials.gov ever reported their results and on average the results weren't published for two years after the study had completed. Additionally, only 53% of the trials funded by the National Institute of Health were ever reported. Further, results from terminated or suspended clinical trial were rarely ever reported
Rheingold, Valet, Rheingold, McCartney & Giuffra is deeply involved in the pharmaceutical and device litigations we handle. This gives us the opportunity to uncover some of the hidden results of clinical trials never reported by the pharmaceutical companies that sponsor them. It is shocking what companies sometimes don't disclose, but through litigation much of this information is eventually made public and the world is a better place as a result.
]]>Of the cases studied, more than 16% had post operative complications, and 1 in 200 died. In 1 in 50 instances, the robotic surgery had to be abandoned and the doctors had to resort to open surgery to deal with the problem created. For whatever reason, the authors chose not to tell the type of complications.
]]>Due to the expanding litigation with regard to several products, multiple new consolidations have been announced. Judge Goodwin in the Southern District of West Virginia will receive all federal cases involving vaginal slings (also known as transvaginal mesh) made by American Medical Systems, Boston Scientific and Ethicon, Inc. Judge William Duffey in the Northern District of Georgia will now manage all the Wright Medical Conserve metal-on-metal hips. To promote judicial economy, lawsuits involving the same products can be consolidated with one judge for pre-trial management. Transvaginal mesh has come under attack for poor designs which result in pain, erosion, infection and other injuries in many women. The Conserve hip has been linked to stem failure and metallosis, tissue necrosis, pseudo tumors and other problems.
]]>Our firm represented hundreds of clients against American Home Products, which quietly changed its name to Wyeth during the litigation. The Mayo Clinic discovered and published medical reports that diet drug users developed heart valve injuries, many of which were irreversible. A fatal lung disease, now know as pulmonary arterial hypertension, was the worst problem. Wyeth was in possession of side effect data but denied its existence to the Mayo Clinic and the FDA, only later to actually file supplemental adverse event reports long after the fact, and after it was too late for many users.
Amazingly, Xenical and Meridia were subsequently approved and also later found to cause heart problems. Most shocking is that these costly diet pills have never proved to have significant, permanent weight loss in combination with provable reduction in obesity-related illnesses in those using the drugs.
Over the counter products that had ephedra and phenylpropanolamine were associated with heart attacks and strokes due to blood pressure spikes. Our firm had leadership positions in litigation committees and also litigated cases to verdict. In fact, our suits resulted in manufacturers halting sales long before the FDA removed these ingredients from the market.
]]>Our firm is hundreds of patients who have been injured after taking the osteoporosis drug Fosamax, or other similiar bisphosphonate drugs like Boniva and Actonel. There are two separate litigations surrounding Fosamax: the ONJ litigation and the Femur Fracture litigation. With the ONJ cases have been tried with mixed results, there has yet to be a tral in the femur fracture litigation.
]]>New Zealand and Britain were home to Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries which were able to make strong inroads into the hip implant business. Our firm has clients nominated to take part as lead trial plaintiffs. While final choices have not been made, our aggressiveness makes us privy to what is not always publically known. For instance, there appears to be major discrepancies in the knowledge shared between the British, New Zealand and United States Johnson & Johnson divisions. Our litigation drive is to find out what the company knew, when they knew it, and what they did with the information when they knew it.
These studies have to be done at public expense even though Johnson & Johnson made millions of dollars from these implants and NEVER did any of their own pre-market testing or post-marketing surveillance with regard to metal diseases. Even worse, Johnson & Johnson continues to profit from this crisis by selling other implants to the revision victims. Thankfully, the Johnson & Johnson CEO has announced his resignation and the company has set aside billions of dollars for litigation.
As part of our representation, we provide our clients with more detailed information about the litigation. This appears in a separate, password protected area.
]]>Serious problems arise in hospitals when specimens are mismanaged or mislabeled. Also, sanitary conditions, including proper ventilation, is important for disease prevention. Our medical malpractice team has decades of experience in reviewing medical records to determine what may or may not have happened. Sometimes the most important evidence is not included in the medical records. Experience has taught us that the most important documents may be "missing" or perhaps written on the back of page but not duplicated in a legal production. Missing records can lead to legal sanctions against hospitals, and a court can instruct a jury to allow for a negative inference for missing documents. Our clients often have a "gut feeling" that something was wrong about their care, or they were told by a lower level employee that a mistake was made.
]]>The FDA has recently announced what has been suspected for some time--that statins may cause drug-drug interactions for patients taking drugs to treat HIV/AIDS or hepatitis C. The agency singled out atorvastatin (Lipitor), rosuvastatin (Crestor), and simvastatin (Zocor) for the new warnings and restated a warning about mixing lovastatin (Mevacor) with HIV and HCV drugs. The concern is over of diabetes and memory problems. Hyperglycemia had been noticed in the recently reported JUPITER drug trial. The cognitive issues were discovered through adverse event reports.
]]>This case arose from a motor vehicle accident that occurred on August 1, 2002. There were 5 women in the Toyota Land Cruiser. The driver and the front passenger were wearing their seat belts. The back three passengers were not wearing their seat belts at the time of the accident and all were ejected from the vehicle during the roll-over.
While traveling on Interstate 81 Southbound, the left rear tire failed and the vehicle careened out of control. It rolled over 4 times ejecting the rear seat passengers. One passenger died while the others received serious injuries. The case went to trial on March 19, 2012.
After 2 ½ weeks of trial, the jury found Dunlop Tire Corporation strictly liable for a manufacturing defect in its tire that caused a total tread separation from the tire carcass resulting in a single-vehicle roll-over accident. The jury also found Dunlop breached its implied warranty that the tire was reasonably fit for its ordinary purpose.
The jury placed 100% of the liability on Dunlop and awarded each plaintiff according to her injuries and/or death. The plaintiffs in total received over $4.3 million.
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