New York updates in category: FDA & Prescription Drugs

A Canadian women died in March due to toxic counterfeit drugs she purchased over the Internet. This was the first confirmed Canadian death due to Internet drugs. The women bought the bogus medication from a fake online pharmacy. The drugs she purchased were found to contain high levels of metal.The Executive Director of the Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA), Dr. Jeff Poston, is advising...

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Two decades worth of studies were published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The results show that as the cost of prescription drugs increase some patients stop use of their prescriptions and therapy. The findings were based on a review of 132 studies completed from 1985 to 2006."Such devices as higher co-payments, monthly limits and benefit caps are associated with...

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Families Argue Autism Link Before Vaccine Court On June 11, 2007 court proceedings began for cases involving mercury-containing preservative thimerosal in vaccines. More than 4,800 claims have been made by families of autistic children alleging that thimerosal caused their children's autism. These families will have to go before a special "Vaccine Court" and convince a panel of three judges...

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GlaxoSmithKline settled for $64 million over a class-action lawsuit by parents whose children used antidepressant drug Paxil, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.The defective drug Paxil has reportedly caused a significant increase in suicidal thinking in children and young people taking the drug for depression. There have also been suicides reported among those in this age group taking...

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The FDA has issued a safety alert for the diabetes drug Avandia. The drug has been on the market for eight years and is used world wide. Avandia is manufactured by Glaxo. A study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine that linked the drug with an increased rate of heart attack and death. The adverse drug reaction database has received approximately 28 Canadian reports of heart...

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A report from AssociatedContent.com says that the Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) has recently proposed the idea of drug makers putting more label warnings of Paxil and other antidepressant drugs for those under age 25. The reason for this stems from studies that show an increase in suicidal thoughts when people under age 25 take antidepressant drugs such as Paxil. Apparently GlaxoSmithKline,...

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The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a judge said yesterday that he plans to approve a $64 million class-action settlement between Paxil manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline and parents whose children took the drug for depression.The news story reports:Paxil was once touted as an answer to teen depression. It was later thought to have increased the risk of suicidal thinking in young people, some of...

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A South Carolina couple is suing the maker of the anti-depressant Paxil, who they believe caused their daughter's birth defect. It is the first lawsuit of it's kind filed within this state.Taylor Dismuke looks like any other 6-year-old little girl but she is living with a heart malformation that will affect her for the rest of her life. Her mother, Kimberly Dismuke said, "She won't be able to...

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Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers have found new evidence that ibuprofen can increase the risk for osteoarthritis in patients that are already at risk to heart attack. Researchers compared combination treatments of low-dose aspirin with drugs ibuprofen, naproxen and the cox-2 inhibitor lumircaboix. They discovered high cardiovascular risk patients that took ibuprofen and aspirin...

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The makers of the cold sore medication Abreva were accused of falsely claiming in ads that the medication cut healing time in half. The defendants, Avanir Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKiline Consumer Healthcare, settled the lawsuit but admitted to no wrongdoing. As part of the settlement, the companies will print 50 million newspaper discount coupons nationwide and will pay up to $1 million for...

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A leading publication reports that researchers at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute found that women in their 60s and 70s who take hormone therapy are at an increased risk for heart attacks. A leading publication reports that researchers at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute found that women in their 60s and 70s who take hormone therapy are at an increased risk for heart...

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The pharmaceutical industry is facing an increasing number of private and government lawsuits accusing them of influencing doctors to prescribe drugs for off-label usesThe pharmaceutical industry is facing an increasing number of private and government lawsuits accusing them of influencing doctors to prescribe drugs for off-label uses. The industry claims that it is being unfairly penalized for...

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The dangers of using Paxil, a widely prescribed antidepressant drug, are increasingly reported among patients who have become pregnant and had children with severe or deadly birth defects.In December 2005, the FDA released an alert about the risk of Paxil birth defects. Following is an exerpt from that report: The Food and Drug Administration today is alerting health care professionals and...

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The FDA released an Alert in July 2006 about the increased risk of deadly birth defects in babies whose mothers were using Paxil. The alert reads as follows:FDA ALERT [7/2006]: Increased Risk of Neonatal Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension A recently published case-control study has shown that infants born to mothers who took selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) after the 20th week of...

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Pet owners and authorities are starting to worry about the safety of animal medicines echoing worries regarding human drugs such as Vioxx.Tested on only a couple hundred animals, a drug meant for pets is less likely than a drug for humans to show all its failings and shortcomings until it reaches market, say veterinarians. Over 700 drugs have been approved for pets, but several others are used...

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