Nineteen West Virginia families have filed lawsuits against the drug maker Pfizer, claiming their children suffered birth defects after their mothers took the anti-depressant Zoloft. The lawsuits were filed in Wayne Circuit Court and name Pfizer Inc.; Roerig, a division of Pfizer; and Greenstone LLC. The mothers involved in the separate lawsuits allege they took…
You’ve probably heard how taking aspirin can help prevent heart attacks, but one new study shows that daily aspirin use can slightly lower your risk of dying from cancer, especially cancer in the gastrointestinal tract. The study, which was funded by the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, showed that people who took aspirin daily for…
Americans spend more than $62 billion each year on pills and diet plans that claim to melt the pounds away – but those promises aren’t guaranteed to work. Most diet pills haven’t even been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as safe for weight loss. Diet pill makers often claim their products have…
Bayer AG, maker of Yasmin birth control pills, has paid more than $402 million to settle nearly 1,900 lawsuits in the U.S., the company told stockholders. Bayer also reported that it has doubled its reserve to $610.5 million to settle future cases. The settled lawsuits were filed over claims that Yasmin and Yaz contraceptives caused…
The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on the makers of supposedly “all-natural” dietary supplements because many of them are laced with prescription drugs. In a new analysis by Consumer Reports, “Vitamins and Supplements: 10 Dangers That May Surprise You,” the most frequent violators are makers of supplements aimed to enhance male sexual…
Parents and guardians are being cautioned of the risks of giving prescribed codeine to children after surgeries. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says three children died and another suffered a non-fatal but life-threatening case of respiratory depression, all after being given codeine as a pain reliever after surgeries to remove tonsils and/or adenoids. The…
Older adults use more medicines than younger people and also tend to experience more serious side effects, including death. Yet drug makers often exclude older adults from clinical trials, according to the consumer watchdog group Public Citizen. In particular, a new analysis of four popular medications often taken by older adults – rosuvastatin (Crestor) for…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration isn’t doing a very good job of tracking drugs once they’re on the market to see if they’re safe, according to the Institute of Medicine, a government watchdog group. Some drugs are put on the market despite evidence that they might have bad side effects, the IOM said, and…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned about the risk of infection when clinics re-use injections intended for single-use only. According to MSNBC.msn.com, 10 patients in Arizona and Delaware got serious infections requiring hospitalization after they were injected with diluted drugs intended to be administered to one patient only. A nationwide shortage of…
Last year, the FDA received nearly 180,000 reports of serious, disabling, and fatal adverse drug events in the United States – most of them through drug makers – that affected up to 4 million Americans, which makes an industry watchdog group wonder if anybody out there cares. “In fact, the 2011 data illustrate that many…