Commonwealth Court judges are scheduled to hear an appeal of the decision dismissing Pennsylvania’s 2008 lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson. The company is accused of fraudulently profiting from sales of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal through the Medicaid program.
According to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Pennsylvania previously filed a lawsuit alleging that Johnson & Johnson tricked the state into paying millions more for the drug than it should have. But ...
continue reading...A recent National Public Radio report examines the possible link between natural gas extraction in Pennsylvania’s shale country, and skin lesions that people who live in those areas are experiencing.
The report follows plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Amy Pare, who treated a resident in the Washington county village of Rae who suffered boil-like skin lesions, mostly on her hands and face.
Pare said the lesions occurred on several other people in the area. Several pathologists who examined biopsies were able to ...
continue reading...
David Ward, civil justice coordinator for Keystone Progress, recently wrote an opinion piece for the Philadelphia Inquirer in which he defends the civil court system.
Ward’s piece is a response to a report by the American Tort Reform Association, “Judicial Hellholes,” which criticizes an alleged bias in favor of plaintiffs in Philadelphia’s courts.
According to Ward, the Keystone Progress ‘Taking Back Our Courts’ project found that the Philadelphia civil courts are “a ...
continue reading...An item on the blog Pharmalot examines an e-mail suggesting that drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb plans to get physicians to lobby state Medicaid programs on the company’s behalf.
According to Pharmalot, the e-mail was sent to the district business manager team with the goal of getting Medicaid programs in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland to place the Onglyza diabetes drug on the state formularies.
Although the blog doesn’t say that the company was doing anything illegal, it does point out that the region business ...
continue reading...
A judicial panel has ruled that litigation by multiple parties against Pfizer, Inc., over birth defects allegedly caused by the antidepressant Zoloft, will be transferred to and consolidated in the federal court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The proceedings will consolidate 57 different actions filed in six federal court districts around the country. In the transfer order released on April 17, members of the judicial ...
continue reading...
