General product information that may have liability or just things to be aware of.
Merck & Co. agreed to settle shareholder lawsuits over the withdrawn Vioxx painkiller by strengthening its drug-safety procedures, appointing a new chief medical officer and paying $12.2 million in legal fees.
Merck withdrew Vioxx in 2004 after a study showed it doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The company won 11 of 16 Vioxx suits at trial before agreeing in 2007 to create a $4.85 billion settlement fund to resolve thousands of injury claims over the drug. Plaintiffs' experts said Merck distorted the health risks of Vioxx in medical literature, advertisements and statements to doctors by sales representatives.
The settlement, which won preliminary approval from a New Jersey state judge on Feb. 8, would resolve all so-called derivative lawsuits, which are for the benefit of the company rather than just shareholders. An approval hearing is scheduled for March 22 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The settlement, which covers federal and New Jersey state shareholder cases, isn't an admission of wrongdoing on the part of Merck or the executives named in the suit, Rogers said. The company will be required to make corporate governance changes and "supplement existing policies and procedures," he said.
In testimony videotaped in 2006 for the Vioxx trials, Harvard Medical School professor Jerome Avorn said Merck failed to conduct adequate studies of Vioxx's risks before launching it in 1999 as an alternative to painkillers that caused more stomach bleeding. Merck also misled doctors about a 2000 study that showed Vioxx caused five times more heart attacks than another painkiller, naproxen, he said.
The Advantage study, was a trial of 5,557 patients started in 1999, just as Vioxx was cleared for sale. The study, which recruited 600 doctors, was crafted by Merck's marketing department, according to researchers who reviewed 100 internal company memos and reports.
The Advantage study "was marketing masquerading as science," the lead author of the Annals report, Kevin Hill of Harvard Medical School in Boston, said in a 2008 interview. "They went about this in a very analytic way, picking doctors who would be most influential, who will talk to other doctors and recommend Vioxx to them, and thus increase prescriptions in the area, planting the seeds of additional Vioxx use."
Under the settlement announced yesterday, Merck would submit results of clinical trials to a public registry, with its compliance overseen by an independent third party.
To read this article in it's entirety visit, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=agszHuubt9EM
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The family of a Houston woman whose car sped through a stop sign and smashed into a cement wall, killing her on impact a week before Christmas, filed what is likely the third acceleration-related wrongful death lawsuit against Toyota in the nation Monday.
Trina Renee Harris, a 34-year-old mother of two, died on impact when her 2009 Toyota Corolla slammed into an East Hardy Toll Road cement divider at Barry, leaving no skid marks, Houston police reported.
Her husband, Michael Harris, filed a lawsuit Monday against Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., gas pedal maker CTS Corp. and Fred Haas Toyota World, which leased her the car. Lawyers involved in the lawsuit said it's likely the third such case filed in response to acceleration problems that prompted Toyota to recall millions of vehicles and halt some production.
"I want those who were negligent to be held responsible. This problem was there before Dec. 18 when she died," Michael Harris said. The U.S. Navy petty officer first class had recently completed a stint on an aircraft carrier in the Middle East and was in San Diego when he learned of his wife's death. He returned to Houston, where the family opened Christmas gifts Trina Harris had bought.
His wife worked in a school cafeteria so she would be home by the time her teenage girls got there, Harris said. "She was just Mama Trina and everyone knew they had a place to sleep or a meal if they needed it when she was around."
Toyota issued a voluntary recall related to floor mats and the accelerators in some 3.8 million vehicles in November. Last month it recalled 2.3 million cars, including many 2009 Carollas, to fix a mechanical problem with the accelerators.
Harris said the crash didn't make sense to him and he recalled his wife saying the leased car's accelerator sometimes seemed to move on its own.
He went to the accident scene and then called Toyota before the January recall to tell them there was something wrong.
He said he never heard back from Toyota. But when he heard about the latest recall, he sought out the lawyers and sued, asking for $200 million in actual and punitive damages for what he alleged is gross negligence.
"Toyota is building death traps and they know it and they need to stop it," said lawyer Ken Mingledorff.
A Toyota spokeswoman said Monday that the company would not comment on pending litigation. A manager at Fred Haas said they have not yet seen the lawsuit and calls to CST Corp. were not returned.
Other wrongful death lawsuits against Toyota have been filed in Michigan and California.
The California lawsuit seeks compensation for the loss of a state trooper and family members whose August 2009 crash can be heard on tapes of his 911 call saying his Lexus was going 120 mph and he couldn't stop it.
The Michigan lawsuit was filed by the surviving family of a woman whose Camry missed her regular turn and careened at 80 mph down a street while she tried to pump the brakes until the car hit a tree in 2008. Her Camry was not listed among the recalls, however.
Mary Flood, Houston Chronicle 02/01/2010
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A must read article about child car seat safety!
Is your Car seat installed correctly? How did your car seat do in crash testing? Do your car and your car seat optimize your child's safety? Do you own a quality car seat or just an expensive car seat?
The link below takes you to an article from the Chicago Tribune from March 1, 2009, written by Patricia Callahan. This article brings to light many questions and realities of the car seat safety testing done currently by the seat manufacturers and the government. Summarizing this article would not do it justice so please read in its entirety.
http://www.freep.com/article/20090301/NEWS07/90228066
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