FDA Launches Investigation Into Compounding Pharmacies In The Wake Of Deadly Fungal Meningitis Outbreak
A recent press release from the Food and Drug Administration left many consumers worried about the safety of their medications. The FDA revealed that over the course of the last few months, an investigation has uncovered possibly life-threatening safety issues at more than 30 compounding pharmacies across the country. The issues were discovered after the deadly fungal meningitis outbreak prompted closer scrutiny of the nation's specialized pharmacies.
An especially scary example of the problems present in the nation's compounding pharmacies was found in Florida where the FDA said it discovered medicine with floating black particles. At a different pharmacy, inspectors with the FDA discovered rust and mold in supposed "clean rooms." Dozens of facilities had problems with their sterilization procedures, including allowing workers into rooms with medicine despite having tears in their gloves. All these violations are serious and could be responsible for yet another deadly outbreak like the one started in Massachusetts.
During the middle of March 2013 a jury in Los Angeles decided that a former prison guard from Montana, Loren Kransky, was entitled to $8.3 million in damages for harm caused by Johnson & Johnson's DePuy subsidiary's metal hip implant. 
The first of more than 3,000 cases filed against Takeda Pharmaceuticals over it's once popular diabetes drug, Actos, is now underway. A witness recently testified that the pharmaceutical giant put sales ahead of consumer safety and allowed marketing concerns to trump patient health worries. 
According to a recent article by the New York Times, the Food and Drug Administration has launched an investigation after reports that the 5-Hour Energy product may be linked to some 13 deaths over the past several years. 
A company with the same founders as the specialty pharmacy linked to a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak is recalling all of its products after federal inspectors said it must improve its sterility testing process.
It appears to have been a week of bad news for the maker of the birth control drugs Yasmin and Yaz as Bayer AG announced in its most recent financial report that it had agreed to pay a combined $750 million thus far to settle thousands of claims regarding its birth control drugs causing blood clots. 
The Food and Drug Administration recently announced that the agency launched an investigation concerning five deaths and one non-fatal heart attack linked to consumption of the Monster Energy Drink. The Monster Energy Drink is a heavily caffeinated soda that has grown in popularity in recent years among those eager for a boost, especially young people. 
The recent outbreak of fungal meningitis has many people asking questions about the safety of compounding pharmacies and the origins of many of the medicines we put into our systems everyday. Something that many may not realize is just how hard it can be to track down the source of the drugs that you take on a daily basis.
Stryker, the major medical device manufacturer, issued a Class I recall of their Neptune Fluid Waste Removal Systems in early June of this year. The initial recall was issued after two patients were injured and was meant to alert hospitals and doctors that the waste removal systems should not be connected to passive drainage tubes. In one case, a patient's passive drainage tube had been connected to the Neptune 2 system and the patient died.
A recently released study found that doctors commonly prescribe medications for off-label use, but almost never inform their patients of that critical fact. This behavior runs directly counter to regulations issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and represents a possible danger to patients across Mississippi. 
According a recent report, this past year has seen a massive number of medical device recalls. According to ExpertRecall, a company tasked with tracking food, drug and device recalls, a whopping 123 million such devices were recalled in the most recent quarter of the year, representing a nearly two-year high. 
Bayer AG, the maker of Yasmin birth-control pills, said that settlements related to U.S. lawsuits over its product have increased to more than $402 million. Bayer said it has resolved almost 1,900 cases in which it has been claimed that Yasmin and Yaz contraceptives caused blood clots that can lead to heart attacks and strokes. The company said that the payments have broken down to an average of about $212,000 per case.
A terrifying statistic for the many thousands of patients who have undergone hip replacement surgery appeared in a Bloomberg article published in June of this year. The article explained that the FDA reported some 16,800 adverse events related to metal-on-metal hip implants in the U.S. between 2000 and 2011. 
The Food and Drug Administration just released some surprising news that it found poor software quality is to blame for many of the recalls that have been seen in the medical device industry. The FDA's research revealed that such glitches were responsible for 24% of all such recalls. 
A man from neighboring Tennessee has filed a lawsuit against Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the maker of Pradaxa. The drug company is being sued by the man who claims his father died as a result of side effects he experienced as a result of his use of the blood-thinning prescription drug. 
