All Topics

• Avandia Warning

  Robert Binstock | June 20, 2007 9:50 AM | 0 CommentsGalveston Bay, TX

  The FDA has been criticizing the handling of Avandia for the past three weeks now. Avandia was the subject of a meta-analysis which is an overview of the results of many smaller studies. In the study, it was found that those taking Avandia had a 43% greater chance of death or heart attack than those not taking the drug. The data was being reviewed and the reputations of Glaxo and the FDA was...

• Medicine is extending lives, but not for diabetic women

  Robert Binstock | June 19, 2007 10:41 AM | 0 CommentsGalveston Bay, TX

  Advances in medical care over the last three decades have reduced heart disease and extended lives, but not for women with diabetes. For men and non-diabetic women, death rates from 1971 to 2000 dropped significantly, but no decline was seen for women with diabetes, a new analysis of federal data finds.It was found that heart disease for everyone but for women with diabetes, steadily declined. ...

• Paxil Refunds

  Robert Binstock | June 18, 2007 2:10 PM | 0 CommentsGalveston Bay, TX

  A $64 million class action settlement recently approved by an Illinois judge means parents who bought their kids the antidepressant drug Paxil could be eligible to recoup their out-of-pocket expenses.Paxil is said to have misled people about the medication's safety. Parents of children who have taken the drug are trying to get reimbursements under a $64 million class-action deal. Although the...

• Beware of Kugel Hernia Mesh Patch Injury

  Robert Binstock | June 18, 2007 12:01 PM | 0 CommentsGalveston Bay, TX

  April 3, 2006 -- The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Davol, Inc. have notified healthcare professionals regarding the expansion of a class 1 recall for a ventral hernia repair device to include all lots of the oval "midline" size, and lots manufactured before 2004 of the large oval and large circle products. The recall previously affected only the extra-large oval patch.The recall is...

• Nothing new about controversy over medications

  Robert Binstock | June 18, 2007 10:01 AM | 0 CommentsGalveston Bay, TX

  The current controversy swirling around the diabetes drug Avandia is reminiscent of a similar controversy that arose more than 30 years ago. Then, as now, a study showed that a popular diabetes drug might be causing heart problems instead of preventing them.Back then, many doctors found it hard to believe that a prescribed drug used to lower blood sugar could cause cardiac problems. Scientists...

• Paxil and Birth Defects

  Robert Binstock | June 15, 2007 1:47 PM | 0 CommentsGalveston Bay, TX

  The Food and Drug Administration issued a health alert on September 27, 2005, to medical professionals and that GlaxoSmithKline changed the labeling on their popular antidepressant Paxil to reflect growing concerns about birth defects. Women that took Paxil during their first three months of pregnancy were one and a half to two and a half times more like to have a baby with a serious heart...

• Bard Composix Kugel

  Robert Binstock | June 15, 2007 11:31 AM | 0 CommentsGalveston Bay, TX

  On January 10, 2007, Davol, Inc. sent letters to health care professionals and distributors telling them to stop using the recalled product, specific lots of Bard Composix Kugel Large Oval and Large Circle Mesh Patches, and return unused units to the company.The "memory recoil ring" that opens the Bard Composix Kugel Mesh Patch can break under the stress of placement of the large sized products...

• Vioxx Judge Reverses His Decision

  Allison Snoddy | June 06, 2007 2:51 PM | 0 CommentsGalveston Bay, TX

  On June 5th 2007, a judge who threw out a $51 million damage award against Merck & Co. last year over its Vioxx painkiller reversed himself. He reversed his decision and awarded $1.6 million ($600,000 in compensatory and 1 million punitive) to a former FBI agent who blamed his heart attack on the drug. Judge Eldon Fallon said that Gerald Barnett could accept the $1.6 million or have a new...

• Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed Against Police Department

  Christina Cole | April 18, 2007 9:19 PM | 0 CommentsGalveston Bay, TX

  A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, seeking damages from Wichita Falls Police Department and one of its officers for a car accident that resulted in the death of a 29-year-old man in April 2005. Two relatives, heirs to the man's estate, are suing the department and unnamed officer. Court documents describe the officer as "an unknown...

• Dangers of the Internet Pharmacy

  Dian Rosier | March 30, 2007 3:31 PM | 0 CommentsGalveston Bay, TX

  Think you have found an excellent source to obtain your prescriptions drugs such as Ambien, Zanax, Lexapro and Ativan? Think again! Many Americans who ordered these drugs were shocked when the FDA has issued an alert regarding buying these specific drugs over the internet because they have found some of these pills contain the anti-psychotic drug, haloperidol, commonly know as Haldol.Used...