Blog

An article this week in the New York Times reports that General Motors knew five years ago of the deadly ignition switch defect in its Chevy Cobalt. The article discusses a meeting in May 2009 where GM engineers reviewed data from black boxes that confirmed the deadly defect. The article […]

Investigations have been opened this week by both Congress and the Justice Department into why General Motors failed to act more quickly in its recall of 2003-2007 model year vehicles affected by a faulty ignition switch. The investigations involve the recall of the Chevrolet Cobalt, Pontiac G5, and Pontiac Pursuit […]

Johnson & Johnson (“J&J”) has purportedly reached a settlement with the Justice Department which will have the healthcare giant paying $2.2 billion to resolve unlawful marketing claims. The settlement would include a criminal fine of approximately $400 million for the unlawful promotion of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal. The final total […]

The British drug-maker GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay $3 billion to settle claims related to illegal marketing of drugs. The U.S. government’s civil and criminal investigations of Glaxo related to multiple different drugs. The settlement includes resolution of allegations that Glaxo improperly marketed the drug Avandia, a drug whose use was […]

Bills were recently introduced in the Senate and the House of Representatives that would allow generic drug companies to update warning information about the drugs they manufacture and sell. The bills would also clear the way for consumers harmed by generic drugs to bring failure to warn claims against generic […]

On January 3, 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered manufacturers of vaginal mesh implants, such as Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific, Bard and American Medical, to study the number and kind of side effects reported with the use of the mesh implants. Following the FDA Order and […]

GlaxoSmithKline, a behemoth drug manufacturer, has agreed to pay $750 million to settle criminal and civil complaints that the company knowingly sold contaminated drugs, including contaminated baby ointment and an ineffective antidepressant. The settlement is the result of a whistleblower suit filed by a former quality control manager with the […]

In an announcement covered by the Associated Press, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) yesterday caved in to industry and declined to set mandatory limits on cadmium. Cadmium is a toxic metal that was the focus of a recall of 12 million ‘Shrek’ glasses at McDonald’s earlier this year, […]

European Drug Company AstraZeneca had its wrist slapped this week by the Food and Drug Administration (‘FDA’). The FDA fined AstraZeneca for illegally promoting the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel and for illegally paying doctors to prescribe the drug. Seroquel has been the best-selling anti-psychotic drug on the market since it was […]

The New York Times recently reported that a type of hip implant once widely used in as many as 80,000 out of the estimated 250,000 hip replacement and resurfacing procedures performed in the U.S. annually may cause complications for patients. The hip components, referred to as metal on metal devices, […]