Pfizer Inc. resolved all but three of 35,000 claims over its withdrawn diabetes drug Rezulin for a total of about $750 million. Pfizer, which is acquiring rival Wyeth for almost $64 billion, paid about $500 million to settle Rezulin cases consolidated in federal court in New York, according to court…
A California nut grower and processor issued a nationwide recall of pistachios on Tuesday due to possible salmonella contamination, and authorities said consumers should avoid all pistachio products until more information was available. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said several illnesses had been reported that may be associated…
A Fulton County jury has awarded $1.8 million in damages to a boy whose penis was severed in a botched circumcision. The state court jury gave another $500,000 to the boy’s mother in the decision rendered. The case involves a child,who was born at South Fulton Medical Center in 2004.…
A congressional study and a national consumer advocacy group found that the health care industry in 2004 had spent millions of dollars exaggerating the malpractice crisis in Nevada and elsewhere in the country. But the hard-hitting television campaign of five years ago, helped persuade voters to overwhelmingly approve an industry-backed…
A now-12-year-old Temecula boy who fell from a fast-food restaurant’s play structure and struck his head, causing brain damage, was awarded a $20 million settlement from the franchise’s parent company. The money was awarded to Jacob Buckett and his sister, Isabelle, who was 5 at the time of Jacob’s fall…
A federal judge has upheld most of an $8.5 million judgment awarded to a woman who lost use of her arm due to a flesh-eating bacteria misdiagnosed by an Air Force base doctor. The judge last month granted only part of the U.S. government’s request to trim $1.13 million from…
A Palm Beach County jury has awarded $4 million on behalf of a child suffering from severe mental retardation that the family blamed on a delayed delivery in a West Palm Beach hospital more than 11 years ago. Stephanie Preshong Brown, of Palm City, was carrying twins in July 1997…
Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris USA unit and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said they won a verdict in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed on behalf of a Florida smoker. A state court jury in St. Petersburg, Florida, found the two biggest U.S. cigarette makers not liable in the case. The verdict…
A pharmacist at the Yuba City Wal-Mart store mislabeled a pill bottle, resulting in a woman taking twice too much blood pressure medication and nearly dying, according to a $1.2 million lawsuit. After collapsing on a bus, victim Geraldine Schamanski’s heart stopped five times in 24 hours. Besides Wal-Mart, the…
A Staten Island man stricken with polio has won a multimillion dollar lawsuit against a drug maker, claiming he contracted polio 30 years ago while changing his daughter’s diaper. Dominick Tenuto was awarded $22.5 million, believed to be one of the highest awards ever on Staten Island. The lawsuit claims…