The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned St. Jude Medical to address safety issues concerning the company’s Durata heart device – an electrical lead wire that connects an implanted defibrillator to a patient’s heart. This implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) lead may fail by not sufficiently preventing insulation abrasions that can cause patients to […]
Category: News
Proctor & Gamble’s Actonel, a class of bisphosphonates used to treat osteoporosis, has been linked to many serious side effects – including Osteonecrosis of the Jaw (ONJ) or jaw death. A recent Actonel jaw death victim has filed a $1.5 million product liability lawsuit against Proctor & Gamble for his injuries. Like so many other […]
Billions of dollars are spent every year on drug research – the results of which get published in medical journals and are relied upon by doctors and patients across the nation. However, most people don’t know that a great deal of what gets published is actually written by the drug industry itself or by doctors, […]
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration announced that it has placed a black box warning on Incivek, a hepatitis-C drug generally used by liver disease patients. Manufactured by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the drug has been linked to serious rash conditions including Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN), Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS) and Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms […]
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration and Medtronic Neuromodulation, the Minnesota-based medical device giant, issued a Class I recall of the company’s SynchroMed II Implantable and SynchroMed EL Implantable Infusion pumps due to motor stalling and drug dispensing issues which could result in serious adverse health risks or death. Medtronic Drug Infusion Pump Recall & […]
This month, the manufacturer of medical ventilators for critically ill babies has issued a nationwide recall of thousands of Life Pulse High-Frequency Ventilator Patient Circuits. The high-frequency ventilator is used to treat infants in intensive-care units. The patient circuits, which are made of disposable tubing, provide a conduit for humidification, warming and temperature monitoring of […]
Women who take birth control pills and have a hormone disorder called polycystic ovary syndrome have twice the risk of blood clots as other women, according to a new study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. A blood clot, also called a venous thromboembolism, can be fatal if the blood clot moves to the lungs. […]
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that the newest oral contraceptives containing drospirenone, such as Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella, may have a higher risk of causing blood clots than other oral contraceptives. Blood clots can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Federal food and drug regulators have approved for sale two basic types […]
The diabetes drug Avandia is in the news again because of allegations that the drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline misrepresented the safety of Avandia. GlaxoSmithKline LLC announced a $90 million settlement to resolve allegations that the pharmaceutical company illegally marketed Avandia, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. The settlement was announced shortly after 38 states, […]
People who take the blood thinner warfarin as well as a certain class of antidepressants that includes Zoloft and Paxil may have a higher risk of uncontrolled bleeding, according to a new study presented at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting in early November. Patients taking warfarin and a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), such […]