Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

Today, in Dallas, Texas, my home town, the attorneys involved in the multi-district consolidated federal DePuy Pinnacle litigation, met with Judge Ed Kinkeade, who is overseeing the MDL Court.

The topics that were discussed included the recent Case Management Order that is to provide a schedule for proceeding with the Pinnacle metal on metal hip lawsuits.

From my vantage point in the “peanut gallery,” I counted 6 attorneys from the defense and about 35 plaintiff attorneys and each side made a short presentation on the status of the lawsuits at this time.

Approximately 1,000 women across the United States who suffered serious blood clot side effects have filed a Nuvaring lawsuit claim.

What is Nuvaring?

NuvaRing birth control is a third generation contraceptive manufactured by Organon USA. Organon is part of the Schering-Plough Corporation, which is now owned by Merck.

Federal regulators at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have issued a warning about the combination of blood pressure medication Aliskiren (Tekturna) with ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBS) in diabetics or kidney patients.

Novartis, the maker of Aliskiren, announced that the TekturnaR labels have been updated in the US, following the FDA’s review of the preliminary findings from the ALTITUDE study.

Altitude Study

Wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits are being filed against Intuitive Surgical, Inc., the maker of the da Vinci Robotic system. These lawsuits are alleging that patients are being injured following the use of a da Vinci robot during a hysterectomy and other surgeries.

Recently a case was filed by Gilmore McCalla in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on April 4, alleging that the death of his daughter, Kimberly McCalla, was caused by problems with the device used during her robotic surgery.

What is the da Vinci Robotic System?

According to Merck & Co., Inc. form 10-K annual report for the fiscal year 2011, published on February 28th, approximately 950 NuvaRing lawsuits were pending as of Dec. 31st 2011.

This critical information is buried deep in the financial disclosures, pages 118, 119.

The plaintiffs are alleging damages for personal injuries sustained from NuvaRing, including deaths, venous thromboembolism, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and strokes.

According to a report in Bloomberg News, Bayer AG will pay at least $110 million to settle about 500 lawsuits over claims that its Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella lines of birth-control pills caused blood clots, in the first round of case settlement.

Bayer, is based in Leverkusen, Germany, and agreed to pay an average of about $220,000 a case to resolve the claims that its Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella drugs caused venous thrombo-embolism that can lead to heart attacks, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and strokes.

The settlements came after federal judge Herndon overseeing the MDL litigation in Illinois postponed Jan. 9 bellwether trials. The complaints alleged that Bayer and some of its units mislead women about the health risks of its birth-control pills.

An Arkansas judge fined Johnson & Johnson and a subsidiary more than $1.1 billion for downplaying and concealing risks associated with the antipsychotic drug Risperdal.

Judge Tim Fox ruled that Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its parent company must pay $5,000 for each of 240,000 Risperdal prescriptions the state Medicaid program paid for during a 3½-year period. He also fined the companies $2,500 for more than 4,500 letters Jannsen sent to Arkansas doctors, about $11 million.

Arkansas sued the companies alleging they misled doctors throughout the state in a letter that downplayed Risperdal’s side effects.

Tylenol is the most popular pain killer in America, with billions of the tablets and capsules sold each year.

Acetaminophen is the generic name for Tylenol, and is found in well over 200 commonly available over the counter medications, including DayQuil® and Tylenol®.

Acetaminophen-related liver injuries (Acetaminophen Injury) result in over 56,000 emergency room visits each year, 26,000 hospitalizations each year, and over 450 deaths.

The FDA made a safety announcement today regarding birth control pills containing Drospirenone and the new label change, that these products may be associated with a higher risk for blood clots.

FDA indicated that it had completed its review of recent observational (epidemiologic) studies regarding the risk of blood clots in women taking drospirenone-containing birth control pills. According to the FDA, drospirenone-containing birth control pills may be associated with a higher risk for blood clots than other progestin-containing pills.

What is Drospirenone