Galveston Bay Personal Injury Lawyer articles in category: FDA & Prescription Drugs

Today the FDA informed health care professionals of life-threatening adverse events and death in patients taking Tussionex Pennkinetic Extended Release Suspension. According to the FDA website doctors have prescribed the hydrocodone containing cough suppressant to children under the recommended age of six. Additional reports of physicians prescribing the medication at more frequent intervals...

Last Friday the FDA added the strictest warning available to three anemia medications. The black box warning warns of an increased risk of death and tumor growth associated with the medications. Amgen's Aranesp and Epogen and Johnson & Johnson's Procrit have been shown to accelerate tumor growth in patients with several different types of cancer. The drugs had been linked to similar risks in...

Last Thursday a jury ordered Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Upjohn to shell out over $27 million in compensation to an Arkansas woman who developed breast cancer after taking hormone replacement therapy. The jury ruled in favor of Donna Scroggin citing that the companies failed to provide adequate warnings of the drugs Premarin and Prempro. The jury decided that Scroggin should receive $19.3 million...

In September of 2005 Faith Gibson of Canada gave birth to Meah, a beautiful baby girl. Meah was born with a hole in her heart, which required surgery and a seven-month hospital stay. Faith believed at the time that her daughter's condition was just an unfortunate happenstance, but last year after reading an article about birth defects associated with the prescription antidepressant Paxil she...

Today an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association claims that commonly used anemia drugs sold by Amgen and Johnson & Johnson raise the risk of death in cancer patients by about 10 percent. The publication, based on new analysis of existing clinical trial data, comes just as the FDA is planning to convene an advisory panel to address concerns associated with the...

Two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine have linked the drug Trasylol, used to reduce bleeding during open-heart surgery, to an increased risk of death and kidney damage among other concerns. Patients taking Trasylol were found to be 27 percent more likely to die a decade after surgery than those who received a rival drug in a study of over 10,000 patients. Another study of...

A report published today claims that clinical trials will begin next month to see if Pfizer's stop smoking drug, Chantix, can be an effective treatment for curbing drinking and gambling habits. The drug has been shown to be effective in treating smoking addiction, but has been met with widespread controversy over a possible link to neuropsychiatric events, including suicidal ideation and...

The FDA recently released a draft of guidelines that would allow drugmakers to distribute reprints of peer-reviewed journal articles that suggest off-label uses for their medications. Doctors have always been able to prescribe drugs as they see fit and off-label prescription is commonplace throughout the medical field, but drugmakers have never been allowed to promote medications for any use...

Today Actavis South Atlantic LLC announced the recall of several lots of fentanyl pain patches. This is the second recall of fentanyl pain patches in one week's time. Last week Johnson & Johnson issued a recall of specific lots of 25 microgram per hour Duragesic pain patches, for a risk that the some patches may have a defect that allows the medication to be releases faster than intended,...

A former clinical research associate who worked on the clinical trials for the antibiotic, Ketek, said that researchers and Sanofi-Aventis worked together to defraud the FDA. Ketek has been linked to liver problems and according to allegations by the FDA the manufacturer, Sanofi-Aventis, made deliberate efforts to conceal evidence that would be harmful to the drug during the post marketing...

A writer for New York Magazine recently published an article entitled, "My Brain on Chantix," revealing his personal experiences while taking Chantix. Derek de Koff says in the article that he never believed the stories of Chantix contributing to the tragic shooting death of Carter Albrecht, that is until he began taking the drug himself. Chantix has been hailed by many as a "miracle drug," but...

Today the FDA issued an Early Communication about an ongoing study on the use of Botox. The communication was issued in response to a small amount of deaths and other severe side effects suggestive of botulism associated with the drug. Botox is commonly used to block nerve impulses allowing muscles to relax, therefore eliminating involuntary twitches and spasms. In recent years Botox has been...

Today a panel of outside experts will examine advise the FDA on whether or not a new injectable version of the popular schizophrenia drug, Zyprexa, should be approved in the US. Zyprexa is currently available in a once-daily pill form, but the new formula, Zyprexa Adhera, can be injected into the muscle and last up to four weeks. The panel will weigh all aspects of the drug and available...

On Friday the FDA issue a Public Health Advisory for Pfizer's popular smoking cessation drug Chantix. This advisory comes just two months after an Early Communication advised physicians of a possible link between Chantix and neuropsychiatric symptoms. The FDA has now said that it is becoming increasingly likely that this association exists. The shooting death of Dallas musician Carter Albrecht,...

Yesterday the FDA announced the findings of a two-year study on medications used to treat epilepsy and bi-polar disorder. The combined analysis of almost 44,000 patients in 199 clinical trials found that the drugs tested were twice as likely to produce suicidal thoughts in patients, when compared to those treated with a placebo. The study found 4 suicides and 105 reports of suicidal ideation...