The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is joining famous environmental and consumer activist Erin Brockovich in its skepticism of Bayer’s popular birth control device, Essure. Bayer claims that the coil-like device is the only non-surgical permanent form of birth control on the market. The FDA announced last month that it will be conducting a
7/13/2015 Tomorrow will be one of the biggest dates in book history, not Fifty Shades of Grey history, perhaps more like Grapes of Wrath history. After more than five decades, a companion to America’s most beloved book, To Kill a Mockingbird, will be released in stores nationwide. Go Set a Watchman was actually submitted to
7/12/2015 Embattled Japanese airbag manufacturer Takata has roiled some lawmakers by announcing that the company will not set up a victim’s compensation fund similar to that for the General Motors’ ignition switch recall. Takata’s North American senior vice-president Kevin Kennedy made the announcement in a letter penned to Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who had strongly
7/11/2015 As the old adage goes (I think), hack me once, shame on you, hack me twice; well, you know the rest. Unfortunately for the head of the federal government’s main human resources department, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) Katherine Archuleta, two major data breaches into the sensitive electronic files affecting over 22
7/10/2015 Another drug has hit the lawsuit trail for horrific side effects and manufacturer failure to warn. I just published a piece on Zithromax and SJS and now, Dilantin (generic Phenytoin) is on the hook for the same issue – causing Stevens Johnson Syndrome. It’s yet one more case of a drug potentially doing more
7/10/2015 It’s been a busy 48 hours for National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) chief Michael Rosekind. On Wednesday, the agency released the list of vehicles affected by the massive Takata airbag recall. In addition to the list that is published at the end of this posting, the NHTSA has created a vehicle identification number
7/9/2015 It was only a matter of time before the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) spoke out on the issue of taking SSRI antidepressants while pregnant and birth defects. The CDC found causal link between SSRIs and birth defects. The study, led by Jennita Reefhuis, an epidemiologist in the birth defects branch of the CDC,
7/9/2015 U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler in New Jersey will handle 70 Benicar lawsuits centralized in MDL. Many people taking the blood pressure medication Benicar have filed suit claiming they’ve suffered harmful side effects such as chronic diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems. The plaintiffs claim that Benicar’s makers, Daiich Sankyo and Forest Laboratories, failed to
7/9/2015 After a raucous 13-hour debate Wednesday bleeding into Thursday morning, South Carolina’s House of Representatives voted to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds by a 94-20 margin in the bill’s required third reading, passing despite a last-minute attempt to delay the measure by proposing a barrage of amendments. The quick action in
7/9/2015 On Wednesday, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of the U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia has affirmed the federal Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s 2-1 decision last year that the Washington Redskins’ nickname and logo are offensive to Native Americans. Last year, the board voted that the trademark violated terms of the Lanham Act, which