Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

February 23, 2010

FDA Faces More Pressure to Pull Avandia Diabetes Drug

The Food and Drug Administration, under fire from a new Senate report questioning the safety of GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s diabetes drug Avandia, told doctors that patients taking the medicine should stay on it unless their doctors say otherwise.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.), the chairwoman of the House appropriations panel that controls the FDA’s budget, said: “I strongly urge the FDA to remove Avandia from the market until a truly independent, science-based advisory panel can evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the drug.”

Read full article here at the Wall Street Journal.

February 23, 2010

Texas Woman Dies After Walking Into Train in Dallas

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A pedestrian wearing a hooded jacket has been killed by a commuter train in Dallas.

The woman walked into a Trinity Railway Express train, which links Dallas and Fort Worth and carries about 10,000 passengers daily, during afternoon rush hour Monday.

Read full story here at the Fort Worth Star Telegram

February 22, 2010

Heart Attack and Heart Failure Side Effects of Avandia Diabetes Drug

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Three years ago, Dr.Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, conducted a landmark study that suggested that the best-selling diabetes drug Avandia raised the risk of heart attacks. The study led to a Congressional inquiry, stringent safety warnings, a sharp drop in the drug’s sales of GlaxoSmithKline, Avandia’s maker.

The battle between Dr. Nissen and GlaxoSmithKline was waged from afar in news releases and published papers. But on May 10, 2007, 11 days before Dr. Nissen’s study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, he and four company executives met face to face in a private meeting whose details have not been disclosed until now.

Read the full article here at the New York Times.

February 22, 2010

Third hand Smoke Forms Cancer-Causing Residue Indoors

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Tobacco smoke contamination lingering on furniture, clothes and other surfaces, dubbed thirdhand smoke, may react with indoor air chemicals to form potential cancer-causing substances, a study found.

After exposing a piece of paper to smoke, researchers found the sheet had levels of newly formed carcinogens that were 10 times higher after three hours in the presence of an indoor air chemical called nitrous acid commonly emitted by household appliances or cigarette smoke. That means people may face a risk from indoor tobacco smoke in a way that’s never been recognized before, said one of the study’s authors, Lara Gundel.

Read the full Bloomberg article here.

February 21, 2010

Glaxo to Remove Zinc From Denture Cream

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The maker of Poligrip denture cream will stop making formulas containing zinc amid lawsuits claiming years of excessive use caused neurological damage and blood problems in consumers, allegedly crippling some.

GlaxoSmithKline will stop making and marketing Super Poligrip Original, Ultra Fresh and Extra Care products in the U.S. The company plans to reformulate the creams without zinc.

Read the full story at the New York Times

February 21, 2010

GlaxoSmithKline Knew of Avandia’s Cardiac Risks, Senate Report Says

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Confidential studies by Food and Drug Administration officials recommend that GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia, a diabetes medicine, get pulled from the market because it is linked to heart attacks.

The studies, released as part of a report on Avandia by staff of Senate Finance Committee members Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and Max Baucus (D., Mont.), also say any head-to-head trial where patients get Avandia and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s diabetes medicine Actos would be “unethical and exploitative.” GlaxoSmithKline is currently sponsoring a study, called TIDE, where patients get either Avandia, Actos or other medicines.

Read the full Wall Street Journal Story here

February 20, 2010

FDA Report Avandia Diabetes Drug Harms Heart

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Hundreds of people taking Avandia, a diabetes medicine, needlessly suffer heart attacks and heart failure each month, according to confidential government reports that recommend the drug be removed from the market.

The reports, obtained by The New York Times, say that if every diabetic now taking Avandia were instead given a similar pill named Actos, about 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of heart failure would be averted every month because Avandia can hurt the heart. Avandia, intended to treat Type 2 diabetes, is known as rosiglitazone and was linked to 304 deaths during the third quarter of 2009.

Read full New York Times dtory here.

February 19, 2010

US Army Veterans Blame Burn Pits For Toxic Injury

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A range of health problems are linked to the pits on military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. Toxic substances have been found in the smoke.

The noxious smoke plumes that wafted over the military base in Balad, Iraq, alarmed Lt. Col. Michelle Franco. The stench from a huge burn pit clung to her clothing, skin and hair.

She wheezed and coughed constantly. When Franco returned to the U.S., she was diagnosed with reactive airway dysfunction syndrome. She is no longer able to serve as an Air Force nurse.

Read full story here at the Los Angeles Times

February 18, 2010

Oregon Jury Finds for Plaintiff in First Pain Pump Verdict

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The jury ordered pain pump manufacturer I-Flow Corp. to pay $4.5 million to a man whose implanted pump caused the cartilage in his shoulder joint to wear almost completely away, a condition known as chondrolysis.

In the first verdict of its kind, an Oregon jury has found for the plaintiff in a case against the manufacturer of a pain pump, awarding $4.5 million to a man for permanent damage to his shoulder joint. The verdict, which included damages paid to his wife for loss of consortium, comes in what many considered a test case for the defense. (Beale v. I-Flow Corp., No. 080101554 (Or., Multnomah Co. Dist. Jan. 22, 2010).)
Read full story here Trial

February 18, 2010

U.S. to Probe Toyota Corolla Steering Reports

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Toyota Motor Corp. and U.S. regulators are looking into possible steering problems in the company’s popular Corolla compact, the latest quality issue to surface in the wake of two recalls that covered millions of vehicles and forced Toyota to halt U.S. sales of eight models.

The Corolla investigation could start as early as Thursday, said a U.S. Transportation Department official. The inquiry will cover about 500,000 model-year 2009 and 2010 Corollas, officials said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received 163 complaints about the steering in Corollas from those model years, according to the safety agency’s Web site.

Read the full Wall Street Journal Article here.