Product News and Recalls

Report accuses maker of recalled artificial hips, J&J, of hypocrisy

A report by the American Association for Justice accuses the corporation Johnson & Johnson of hypocrisy for lobbying to prevent individual lawsuits against the company, while suing others to further its goals.

J&J is a board member of the Institute for Legal Reform, an arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The ILR has the stated goal of “tort reform,” which the AAJ translates as an attempt to restrict “access [to] the civil justice system” by individuals.

But even as the corporation ...

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Bayer expects new drugs to generate billions

German corporation Bayer has announced that its four most promising drugs, led by newly-launched anti-clotting pill Xarelto, may account for combined annual sales of as much as $6.5 billion, according to a Reuters report.

The report says Bayer’s healthcare division is aiming for sales of roughly $26.2 billion in 2014, up from $22.4 billion last year.

The company said prescription drug sales were set to rise to about $15 billion by 2014, up 16 percent from 2011, fueled largely by new product ...

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Consumer group calls for reform of FDA approval process

The independent nonprofit Consumer Reports has undertaken a national campaign to change the process by which the federal Food and Drug Administration approves medical devices, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune.

Consumer Reports says the agency’s approval of metal-on-metal hip implants and transvaginal mesh implants – both of which have led to thousands of reported cases of debilitating health problems — illustrate why reforming the process is necessary.

According to the Tribune, Consumer Reports President Jim Guest sent an email ...

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Study: Temporary increased cancer risk from hormonal birth control

Medpage Today reports about a South African study that found a temporary increased risk of breast and cervical cancer associated with hormone contraceptives.

According to the study, women who recently used an injectable or oral hormone contraceptive were about 1.7 times more likely to develop breast cancer and 1.4 times more likely to develop cervical cancer than women who never used them, but the risk disappeared a few years after the women stopped taking the medication.

Numerous studies have also linked certain ...

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Another report warns about metal-on-metal hip implants

A study published March 13 in The Lancet, one of the world’s most respected medical journals, calls on doctors to stop using metal-on-metal hip replacement devices because of concerns about high early failure rates and potentially toxic metal debris leaching off and getting into patients’ bloodstreams.

According to a report by CBS News, British researchers analyzed more than 400,000 hip replacements from the National Joint Registry of England and Wales between 2003 and 2011. They found that almost 6 percent of ...

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Government wants higher sanctions against Johnson & Johnson

The U.S. government is demanding that Johnson & Johnson add another $800 million to an initial proposal to settle a federal civil investigation into marketing of the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal, Bloomberg reports.

According to Bloomberg, the Justice Department is demanding that the company pay about $1.8 billion to resolve the civil claims by the U.S. and some states.

The demand came after the Justice Department and states decided a $1 billion settlement that had been negotiated by the U.S. Attorney’s office in ...

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