Articles Posted in Product Liability

Pfizer Inc. said it agreed earlier this week to pay $894 million to settle most Celebrex and Bextra claims.

Pfizer said in a statement that it is taking an after-tax charge of $640 million against profit in the quarter to cover the settlement sum.

Pfizer said it plans to settle most lawsuits involving the painkillers Bextra and Celebrex. The large size of the settlement heightens the pressure to cut costs, because Pfizer’s blockbuster cholesterol drug, Lipitor, is losing market share and sales growth of its once-promising antismoking drug, Chantix, has slowed because of safety concerns.

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WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is planning to rewrite a wide array of federal rules with changes or additions that could block product-safety lawsuits by consumers and states.

The administration has written language aimed at pre-empting product-liability litigation into 50 rules governing everything from motorcycle brakes to pain medicine. This year, lawsuit-protection language has been added to 10 new regulations, including one issued Oct. 8 at the Department of Transportation that limits the number of seatbelts car makers can be forced to install and prohibits suits by injured passengers who did not get to wear one.

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According to court recordsJohnson & Johnson has spent at least $68.7 million to settle hundreds of lawsuits filed by women who suffered blood clots, heart attacks or strokes after using the company’s Ortho Evra birth-control patch.

Majority of users claimed that the patch caused deep-vein thrombosis, (blood clots in the legs), and pulmonary embolisms, (when the blood clots from the legs travel into the lungs). The complaints blamed Ortho Evra for the deaths of 20 women, strokes and heart attacks.

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A Vermont woman was awarded more than $6 million when a jury ordered Wyeth, a pharmaceutical company, to pay her for failing to warn her about the risks of one of its drugs.

But this case was appealed all the way to the US Supreme Court and the Court is set to hear arguments this November.

This case concerns “Federal Pre-emption,” a legal doctrine that can prevent plaintiffs from suing in state court when the products that injured them had met federal standards.

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The FDA earlier this week imposed a ban on 30 drugs made by the Indian pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy Laboratories. Ranbaxy is one of the largest suppliers of generic medicines to the United States.

This ban follows FDA inspections of two of the company’s plants in India that were found to have unacceptable manufacturing controls, no programs to prevent cross contamination, a lack of sterile processing operations and incomplete records. This ban covers generic versions of popular cholesterol drugs, antibiotics and allergy medicines.

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Several thousand MacGregor and Mitre folding soccer goals were recalled today, after the death of a toddler.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said a 20-month-old Texas toddler was strangled when his head and arm became caught up in the net of one of the recalled goals. The agency received one other report of a child’s head becoming trapped.

The gaps in the recalled nets are about 20 square inches, which is a dangerous size according to the CPSC. The agency says netting should have gaps less than 17 square inches or greater than 28 square inches, to prevent dangerous entanglement and strangulation.

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NHTSA are warning owners of 5 million recalled Ford Motor Co. vehicles to go to dealerships to repair a cruise-control switch system that has been linked to engine fires.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently issued a second consumer advisory to owners of certain unrepaired Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles that have not responded to previous recalls.

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The FDA in an effort to improve communication with doctors and patients on prescription drug safety, began posting a list of medications under investigation for potential problems.

The list is a compilation naming 20 medications and the potential safety issue for each drug. The listings will be updated for each calendar quarter.

Drugs will be placed on the list based on reports the FDA receives and if FDA safety reviewers determine that a reported problem with a particular drug deserves a closer look, that medication will be on the list.