Tag Archives: Food and Drug Administration

A jury has ordered the maker of the popular arthritis drug Humira to pay $2.24 million for not warning doctors about a life-threatening side effect. Delores Tietz, of Manda, N.D., was prescribed Humira for rheumatoid arthritis in October 2009 and took it for almost seven months before feeling flu-like symptoms including chest pains and fever. Her symptoms were not treated for weeks until doctors finally diagnosed her illness as histoplasmosis, a severe fungal infection that can be fatal if untreated. …

A patient who was given a shot of a contrast dye that left him unable to move won a $5 million verdict against GE Healthcare, the maker of the dye. Paul Decker, a retired Ohio man suffering from kidney disease, was given a single dose of Omniscan, a contrast agent administered before body scans like MRIs to help technicians and doctors read the scans more clearly. Decker developed a condition called nephrogenic systemic fibrosis after the 2005 scan. NSF is …

Americans have long enjoyed a good villain. From Congress to Wall Street, lawyers to lobbyists, we love to hate. In some cases, we just sort of dislike what they stand for or have some “feeling,” backed up by evidence (or not) that these various scoundrels aren’t really looking out for what is in most of our best interests. But in certain cases, like with pharmaceutical companies, it can be a well-earned fury documented by years of proven malfeasance. Yes, that’s …

  After drinking two large cans of Monster Energy Drink within 24 hours, 14-year-old Anais Fournier of Hagerstown, Md. died of cardiac arrest. Gabe Silverman reports on the wrongful death and class action lawsuits filed by Anais’s parents against the makers of Monster Energy Drink. Their lawyer, Kevin Goldberg of Goldberg, Finnegan & Mester says if the company had used a warning label that individuals with underlying heart conditions should not consume energy drinks, Anais would not be dead, today. …

A compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts has been linked to the outbreak of a rare form of fungal meningitis caused by contamination of steroid injections commonly used for back and neck pain. Meningitis is a swelling of the protective membranes of the brain and spinal cord. Problems with the injections arose when the contaminated steroid was injected near the spine. Steroid injections in knees or hips are highly unlikely to cause meningitis. The compounding pharmacy shipped 17,676 potentially tainted vials to …