Legal Issues

J&J trying to recover from setbacks

Although Johnson & Johnson’s overall profit fell 10.6 percent to $3.5 billion in the first quarter of 2013, over-the-counter sales through the company’s consumer division are up 14 percent in the United States, according to a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The company is putting more Tylenol and Motrin on stores shelves through its McNeil Consumer Healthcare Unit, located outside Philadelphia. Although McNeil also has plants in Lancaster, Pa., and in ...

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Woman writes of ordeal with mesh implant

Scots newspaper Daily Record recently printed a letter that a woman wrote to Scotland’s health secretary, detailing the health problems she’s endured as a result of getting a vaginal mesh implant. She describes herself as “one of the many, many Scots women whose lives have been devastated by mesh surgery.”

But the devices, implanted to treat urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse, have generated complaints globally about their tendency to erode ...

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Diabetes drug’s sales plummet

According to Reuters, Merck’s quarterly sales of diabetes drug Januvia – the company’s biggest product – took a nosedive in quarterly sales, which has investors concerned.

Overall, shares of the company fell 1.6 percent to $46.23 for the quarter. Though the company’s profit beat forecasts for the quarter, the Reuters story attributes that largely to a favorable tax rate.

Januvia has been the subject of some health concerns recently. Studies have linked ...

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J&J baby powder contaminated with carcinogen

According to a story in the International Business Times, a batch of baby powder from a Johnson & Johnson plant in India was found to be contaminated with a carcinogen. That finding prompted the Food and Drug Administration to cancel Johnson & Johnson’s license to manufacture the powder at that plant.

In recent years, Johnson & Johnson has been obliged to recall nearly 300 million packages of over-the-counter medications, including Motrin, ...

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Cholesterol levels dropping, still problematic

The good news is that national cholesterol levels have dropped over the last four decades. The bad news is that they still represent a “significant public health problem,” according to the National Center for Health Statistics, a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

KPCC Public Radio out of California says the NCHS report specifically refers to low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, which health providers often refer to as “bad ...

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British regulators warn about hip implants

A story in The Telegraph details the advice that British health regulators are providing for U.K. residents who received a “metal-on-metal” hip implant, in light of recent findings that up to half of the devices fail within six years.

Friction between the metal surfacing on both the implants’ ball and cup causes tiny filings of cobalt and chromium to break off. According to the story, that toxic debris “can seep into ...

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