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Posted in Class Actions on July 22, 2013
Class Action Defined Lawsuits involving many people in the same case are called class action lawsuits. One party can sue acting as a representative. Once the class action is certified by the court, only those class members who opt out are excluded from the suit. Class actions allow for the vindication of the rights of…
Posted in Drug Liability on July 18, 2013
In our previous blog post, we discussed the Supreme Court decision to prevent consumers from seeking legal recourse for injuries caused by defective generic drugs under preemption laws. The decision favors manufacturers and is conceptually in conflict with the 2009 Supreme Court ruling that brand-name manufacturers may be sued for damages caused by drug defects….
Posted in Dangerous Drugs on July 17, 2013
According to the Los Angeles Times, generic drugs are the nation’s most commonly used medications. In fact, roughly 80% of prescriptions prescribed by doctors are for generic drugs. Unfortunately for consumers, if a person suffers injury as the result of a defective generic drug, he or she is barred from suing the manufacturer for damages….
Posted in Products Liability on July 17, 2013
Car accidents are the number-one cause of death for U.S. children ages one to 12, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). You can help protect your kids in case of a crash by making sure they are using the right car seat for their age and size, and that each seat is…
Posted in Defective Medical Devices on June 19, 2013
The U.S. Drug Watchdog is a consumer advocate for victims of defective medical devices and recalled drugs in the United States. The group considers the metal-on-metal hip replacement situation the largest medical device failure in U.S. history. Additionally, the group predicts that hundreds of thousands of metal-on-metal hip implant recipients will experience or have already…
Posted in Effexor on June 17, 2013
According to a California federal District Court, a California company that distributed anti-anxiety and anti-depressant drug Effexor was not fraudulently joined in a products liability failure to warn action against Pfizer, Inc., Pfizer International LLC and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the drug’s manufacturers, and McKesson Corp., the its distributor. As a result, the action was sent…
Posted in Dangerous Drugs on June 6, 2013
According to The New York Times, an animal study requested by Merck for its type 2 diabetes drug, Januvia, revealed worrisome changes in the pancreases of rats, leading to follow-up studies which now threaten the future of the lucrative diabetes drug, as well as all other drugs in its class.
Posted in Physician Payment Sunshine Act on May 30, 2013
The Physician Payment Sunshine Act (PPSA) was not established to replace state laws, but to build on them and remove redundancies. The PPSA requires “applicable manufacturers,” defined as “a manufacturer of a covered drug, device, biological, or medical supply,” to disclose payments and additional transfers of value to physicians or teaching hospitals. The Act defines…
Posted in Physician Payment Sunshine Act on May 27, 2013
In addition to the gift ban laws discussed in our last series post, certain states require drug companies to adopt general compliance programs. Both Connecticut and California require drug companies to adopt such programs in accordance with the Office of Inspector General’s “Compliance Program Guidance for Pharmaceutical Manufacturers.” There are several elements in the guidance…
Posted in Physician Payment Sunshine Act on May 23, 2013
In the first part of our Physician Payment Sunshine Act blog series, the experienced pharmaceutical litigation lawyers at Robinson Calcagnie Robinson Shapiro Davis, Inc. discussed existing disclosure laws of several jurisdictions. The disclosure of high-cost gifts was one of the stipulations of these laws, but there are also states which have established laws banning certain…