On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Defective Products on Friday, May 18, 2012
Takeda Pharmaceutical is facing a large number of lawsuits in Alabama and elsewhere due to the growing number of diabetes patients who say they developed bladder cancer as the result of taking Actos. There is another reason for the company to be eager to move onto a different diabetes product to market in this country: its patent for Actos expires in August of this year, meaning that generic versions will soon be available.
To avoid losing market share, Takeda submitted another type 2 diabetes drug to the Food and Drug Administration for approval. The drug, called alogliptin, is already on the market in Japan, where it is called Nesina.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Product Recalls on Sunday, May 13, 2012
Banzai Splash, an inflatable plastic slide used near swimming pools, is being recalled nationwide after three incidents where the slide deflated suddenly while in use. One of the incidents caused the death of a 29-year-old woman. Swimmers in Birmingham should be on the lookout for the defective slides, which feature a blue, orange and white logo on the sides.
The slides were made in China and distributed to retailers by Manley Toys Ltd. They were sold by national chains Wal-Mart and Toys R Us. About 21,000 slides that were sold between January 2005 and June 2009 are subject to the recall, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Defective Products on Friday, May 11, 2012
People in Alabama who have reason to suspect that the diabetes drug Actos caused them to develop bladder cancer now will have an easier time joining the massive multi-state litigation against Takeda Pharmaceuticals. That is because the federal judge overseeing the MDL recently ruled that patients wishing to take legal action through that route may do so directly.
As we have discussed in prior posts, thousands of type 2 diabetes patients were prescribed Actos as a supposedly lower-risk alternative to other diabetes drug products. But as many patients developed bladder cancer, research began linking long-term use of Actos to the disease. Several countries have placed severe restrictions or outright bans of the drug.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Defective Products on Monday, May 7, 2012
This blog has shared several posts with readers in Alabama about research suggesting a connection between pregnant women taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and their children being born with birth defects. The class of drugs blamed for the congenital problems, also known as SSRIs, is typically prescribed as an antidepressant.
But doctors sometimes prescribe these drug products for other medical reasons. One common use for SSRIs is to treat autism spectrum disorders, specifically to reduce repetitive behaviors associated with some autistic patients. Past research appeared to indicate that the drugs had a positive effect.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Defective Products on Friday, May 4, 2012
Parents in Birmingham may recall that Johnson & Johnson issued a massive recall of children's Tylenol in April 2010. The company recalled more than 136 million bottles of the product -- the largest recall of its kind - after some of the bottles were found to be contaminated with bacteria.
A new lawsuit filed by the parents of an infant who died after taking children's Tylenol contends that the recall came 13 days too late to protect their son from harm. The suit accuses J&J of ignoring safety concerns at the plant that manufactured many of the company drug products, creating the conditions that led to the production of the medicine that allegedly caused the boy's death.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Defective Products on Monday, April 30, 2012
Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, is saying that a type 2 diabetes medication causes patients to be three times more likely to develop thyroid cancer and puts them at increased risk for other serious illnesses. The group recently asked the Food and Drug Administration to withdraw its approval for the drug to be sold in Alabama and throughout the U.S.
The drug is called liraglutide. It is manufactured by Novo Nordisk and sold under the name Victoza. The FDA approved liraglutide in January 2010, over the objection of three agency experts, according to Public Citizen. One of those who opposed approving the diabetes treatment product was a clinical safety reviewer who said that the health risks associated with liraglutide were not outweighed by the addition of another type 2 diabetes drug to an already full market. At the time, there were 11 drugs that performed a similar glycemic control function.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Defective Products on Friday, April 27, 2012
As we have discussed in prior blog posts, studies have shown that women in Alabama who take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors to treat depression while pregnant may be putting their unborn child at increased risk of developing serious birth defects. A troubling new study suggests that SSRIs and other prescription drug products could be one of the most common sources of birth defects overall.
The study found that one percent of birth defects were due to the mother using a prescription drug during pregnancy. With birth defects occurring in an estimated two to three percent of all births, that would make prescription drugs the reason for at least a third of birth defect cases.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Defective Products on Monday, April 23, 2012
We have already discussed with our Alabama readers the developing story around Actos, a diabetes drug that thousands of patients say caused them to develop bladder cancer. As more cases of bladder cancer among Actos users arose, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to doctors and diabetes patients about the apparent connection.
The warning was the result of an FDA analysis of the first five years of a 10-year study being conducted by Takeda Pharmaceuticals to determine whether Actos puts users at risk of cancer. The early results of the study appeared to indicate that such a link exists. While there is a general bladder cancer rate of seven cases per 10,000 people, users of the Takeda drug product had a rate of 10 cases per 10,000 people. Health agencies in other countries such as Germany have gone even further and banned new users of the drug.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Defective Products on Friday, April 20, 2012
In an apparent victory for a number of parents who say their children's birth defects are due to taking the antidepressant Zoloft during pregnancy, a class-action lawsuit against Pfizer has been returned from federal to state court. The lawsuit, filed in Missouri, was originally filed in state court but removed to the federal level by Pfizer, the maker of Zoloft.
Readers in Alabama may recall our previous posts about the growing body of research linking the use of certain antidepressants during pregnancy and an increased risk of birth defects in the infants. The class of drug products implicated in the study is called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, or SSRI. Zoloft is one of the top-selling SSRI drugs on the U.S. market.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Product Liability on Friday, April 13, 2012
"Sometimes parents blame themselves when they struggle with LATCH, but oftentimes the problem lies with the vehicle, not the user." Those are the words of the senior vice president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, whose organization, along with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, performed a study of top-selling vehicles and their compatibility with child safety seats.
What they discovered could prompt a wave product liability cases, may it be in Birmingham, Alabama or in the far corners of the country.
