Legal Issues

Troubled J&J appoints new executive

According to a story in the Boston Globe, Johnson & Johnson has appointed Bayer executive Sandra E. Peterson to oversee the company’s troubled consumer health and manufacturing operations.

The move is an attempt by Alex Gorsky, who became CEO of Johnson & Johnson in April, to address a host of quality, legal and ethical problems involving products and sales practices.

Those problems include what the article characterizes as “an eye-popping series of ...

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Ruling expected soon on cancers from 9/11

Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, is expected to soon issue a final rule on which cancers will be covered under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, according to an article in Newsday.

The Zadroga law, enacted January 2011, sets aside $2.8 billion to compensate people made ill by exposure to toxins at the site of the 2001 World Trade Center terrorist ...

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Hundreds join Pradaxa blood thinner lawsuit

A report in USA Today concerns the legal action by hundreds of plaintiffs who used the blood-thinner Pradaxa, stating that it may amount to “the country’s next blockbuster civil settlement.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Pradaxa, manufactured by German pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim, in 2010. At the time, it was promoted as the first replacement for the commonly used blood thinner warfarin, known by the brand ...

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Environmentalist calls on governor to prevent fracking

Tracy Carluccio deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, recently wrote an opinion piece for the Albany Times Union calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo not to allow hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in New York.

Cuomo appears poised to approve fracking on a limited scale along the border with Pennsylvania, where the practice is allowed. Fracking involved injecting millions of gallons of chemically treated water underground in order to break up ...

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Drug maker apologizes for birth defects

The German manufacturer of the drug thalidomide, which has been blamed for about 10,000 birth defects, has issued its first apology to victims in 50 years, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports.

Harald Stock, chief executive of the Grünenthal Group, made the apology during a speech at the unveiling of a thalidomide memorial, a bronze statue of a limbless child.

Addressing the victims and their families, he said “…we have been silent, and ...

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Lawsuit filed against J&J over misleading claims

Consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest has filed a federal lawsuit over artificial sweetener Splenda Essentials, claiming that Johnson & Johnson subsidiary McNeil Nutritionals is misleading consumers about the product’s supposed health benefits.

In a press release, CSPI says that Splenda Essentials’ marketing is designed to give the false impression that the sweetener confers health benefits, such as helping its users lose weight and avoid disease.

The lawsuit ...

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