News

In January 2013, yet another (!) lawsuit was filed in a Minnesota district court on behalf of a woman who received a pelvic mesh implant manufactured by Boston Scientific. This by itself is hardly news; litigation over pelvic slings has just gotten started. It's worth looking at the specific grounds of her lawsuit, however.

The complaint alleges negligence, failure to warn and defective design – as well as breach of “express” and “implied” warranties.

A state Supreme Court in New Jersey, has consolidated forty current lawsuits and twelve pending actions against Howmedica Osteonics – the division of Stryker Medical that brought you the modular stem  hip replacements that have been implicated in metallosis.  The cases will now be heard in the Bergen County Superior Court, the Honorable Judge Brian R. Martinotti presiding.

The first conference is scheduled for 20 February.

Attorney Tim O'Brien of the Levin Papantonio law firm secures decisive jury verdict in a jawbone injury trial.

View article here http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/05/merck-fosamax-idUSL1N0B5BWT20130205?irpc=43

Despite the mounting litigation against Granuflo manufacturer Fresenius Medical Care (only about a dozen cases at the moment – but there will be many more lawsuits filed in the coming year), the German-based company got a very nice present from the U.S. Department of Justice just before Christmas. In fact, it was a gift worth $83 million.

But let's go back a couple of years...

Several law firms across the country have issued press releases across the Internet with the news many bladder cancer victims have been waiting for. The first trial involving Takeda Pharmaceuticals and their allegedly-defective diabetic drug, Actos, will commence on 19 February, 2013.

The case involves one Jack Cooper and other  parties, and will be overseen by the Honorable Judge Kenneth R. Freeman.

German pharmaceutical giant Boehringer-Ingelheim got some very unwelcome news just before the new year. Unfortunately, it wasn't about lawsuits, fines and penalties. It was about the competition. As one of its final actions for 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the anti-coagulant drug apixaban – a product that Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer sells under the brand name Eliquis.

Recently, we discussed product liability for medical device manufacturers and medical malpractice on the part of physicians – and how in some cases, determining responsibility for a plaintiff's injury is not always simple.

If you have been prescribed a dangerous drug or received a defective medical device – such as a hip or joint implant or a pelvic mesh, both of which have been demonstrated to cause serious health problems – you understand that you have a right to sue the manufacturer for damages.

Recently, global pharmaceutical giant Boehringer-Ingelheim (BI) posted a press release (dated 10 December 2012) on numerous sites on the World Wide Web, proclaiming triumphantly that

“Results from a new post-hoc analysis of the landmark RE-LY® trial show that in patients experiencing a major bleeding event, treatment with Pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate) was associated with lower mortality and a shorter length of stay in intensive care compared to warfarin.”

There is no question that dabigatran – produced by German pharmaceutical giant Boehringer-Ingeheim (BI) and sold under the brand name Pradaxa – is dangerous and has resulted in fatal hemorrhaging in as many as 10% of patients for whom it has been prescribed. Most recently, a 92-year-old patient died prematurely after ingesting only a single dose.

Has Boehringer-Ingelheim experienced a “Come to Jesus Moment”?

Several news sources recently announced that the German pharmaceutical giant, whose flagship product Pradaxa has been implicated in several cases of fatal bleeding, has issued a recall – of Pradaxa.

It's been going on for some time, and for the most part has been flying under the radar. It's still an interesting state of affairs, however.

Defective hip implants have been manufactured and marketed by several different companies over the past decade – and at least three of them have been the target of major lawsuits over allegations that the devices are defective.