News tagged with 'Johnson '

With more than five million people in the US reportedly misusing prescription pain relievers, the FDA is asking drug makers to formulate a risk-management plan for the entire class of opioids to avoid overdose and death.

J & J won preliminary approval to market a new ceramic-on-metal hip replacement device that is thought to be an improvement over metal-on-metal.

An expert panel convened to advise the FDA on acetaminophen, voted today that  Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol be given in smaller doses and the Extra Strength Tylenol should be sold by prescription only to reduce the dangers of serious liver injury.

Amber Suriani liked what she heard. Turning 40 and suffering the inconvenience of a light case of urinary incontinence, she liked hearing there was a quick fix – a sling would be placed under her urethra and she would be back to practicing karate the same week. Instead she's filing suit.

Lana Keeton's near death experience with synthetic surgical mesh has transformed her into a powerful online patient advocate.  With a chorus of others, Truth in Medicine is working to urge Congress to remove the medical device from the market. Already the group has generated an FDA notice warning of 1,000 adverse events and 10 deaths due to mesh.

About 13 million American women experience stress urinary incontinence and the Ethicon TVT vaginal mesh is the gold standard for treatment. While the company reports an 84 to 95 percent success rate, doctors who deal with mesh complications say the number of problems appear to be vastly underreported and a national registry is needed now. 

Access to doctors by drug sales reps are down 13 percent, according to a new report.  That translates to about $2 billion a year in expenses and salaries lost to pharmaceutical giants supporting the 90,000 reps who make up the U.S. sales force.  Six percent of doctors reportedly will not see reps from any company.

After more than 30 years, the FDA is pushing to require that manufacturers of 27 medical devices, used to replace hips or make hearts beat, prove they  are safe. 

If you assumed that a medical device that's implanted to help hold up internal organs passed some safety review by the FDA, you'd be wrong.  Synthetic surgical mesh was approved for marketing only. Some in the medical profession suspect there's a problem - some women and men know there is.  

While the complication rate is said to be one in a million, a growing voice of patients claim that the medical device - synthetic surgical mesh - used to treat incontinence and hernias, is not staying put but is migrating, wrapping around organs, requiring repeated surgeries, and in some cases killing patients. They want it off the market. 

The deposition of Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Biederman, shows that he promises Johnson & Johnson executives positive results of a clinical trial on an antipsychotic, before the study even took place.

After the public embarassment at Harvard Medical School concerning faculty on the receiving end of lucrative consulting fees, the school and its teaching facilities are revisiting and revising conflict-of-interest policies.  

Johnson & Johnson will acquire the troubled Mentor Corporation, the subject of a multitude of lawsuits concerning its ObTape product and breast implants.

Federal health officials are investigating a higher rate of deaths among patients treated with a Johnson & Johnson anemia drug, Eprex, in a German study of stroke patients.

Drug makers are suddenly eager to disclose their payments to doctors and researchers for consulting, and speaking services as a federal government disclosure act is close to becoming law. Consumers will have more information to make informed decisions about health care and influence.