Insys $250M Opioid Penalty for Quality Fraud
Link to the DOJ announcement below: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, June 5, 2019 Opioid Manufacturer Insys Therapeutics Agrees to Enter $225 Million Global Resolution of Criminal and Civil Investigations
Barriers To Quality Healthcare and How to Overcome Them
In my line of work, these kinds of cases often show up as patients who suffered adverse events because they “fell through the cracks” (an awful euphemism for getting substandard care). Our latest surveys of pharmacists, patients and providers to inform the upcoming 2023 Medication Access Report, support this. The surveys found that patients and […]
Hey, Pharma: What if cholesterol is not related to serious heart disease? Would you even tell us?
A BMJ study published in 2015 concluded that High LDL-C is inversely associated with mortality in most people over 60 years. This finding is inconsistent with the cholesterol hypothesis. You can find the BMJ study here: Lack of an association or an inverse association between low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and mortality in the elderly: a systematic review While […]
More Opioid Settlements
From New Hampshire’s DOJ: In 2018, the state filed a complaint against J&J, alleging the company misrepresented their opioids as safer than other alternatives in their aggressive marketing campaign to prescribers and patients in New Hampshire. The state further alleged that J&J misrepresented their opioids as rarely addictive, negligently promoted the concept of pseudoaddiction, and […]
Another Big Pharma Opioid Decision
I keep track of the successes and losses of opioid victims. While many victims have logged successes, courts continue to shield Big Pharma in some cases. Here is one of my favorite (and shortest) posts on my blog about the opioid epidemic and its aftermath. Normal Like You (More Opioid Fallout: Pharmacies Are Next On […]
Joint Tortfeasors
Your lawyer should have the experience to identify all of the potential contributing causes to an injury in order to bring a completely meritorious case against all tortfeasors. Frequently, having all the contributing tortfeasors at the table will result in agreement about shared responsibility – even among the Defendants. This may mean suing a pharmaceutical […]
New OTC Laxative Recalls
Here is a link to my experience with product liability litigation. wdeft Practice Area: Product Liability Product liability applies to over the counter medicines like Tylenol as well as prescribed pharmaceuticals. Here is a story on a recent OTC laxative recall. Vi-Jon issued a recall a few weeks ago for various laxative products, warning that […]
A SCOTUS Victory For Pill Mill Doctors
I originally posted about this argument before SCOTUS in March here: Physician Liability for #OUD (Arguments in Ruan v. US) The High Court ruled in favor of the pill mill prescribers, setting aside their 25 year prison sentences. “After a defendant produces evidence that he or she was authorized to dispense controlled substances, the government […]
“CVS Health intentionally prevented certain Medicare beneficiaries from accessing less expensive, generic prescriptions…”
The Forbes report is here: Report: Whistleblower accuses CVS of “calculated and widespread” drug pricing scheme targeting elderly patients
Hospital Medication Errors Kill
More than four years ago, Tennessee nurse RaDonda Vaught typed two letters into a hospital’s computerized medication cabinet, selected the wrong drug from the search results, and gave a patient a fatal dose. The new Kaiser report on medication errors is here. In 2017, I posted a three-part series about my experience litigating a deadly […]