Dangerous Drugs

Over the past few months, you may have noticed several news pieces mentioning recalls of some of the popular heartburn medication ranitidine, also known as Zantac. The culprit in these recalls is a concern of low levels of NDMA, a probable human carcinogen. Nationwide pharmacies like Walgreens, CVS, Walmart and Rite Aid have all pulled…

On August 26, 2019, Oklahoma District Judge Thad Balkman “ruled against Johnson & Johnson in the state’s opioid case, forcing the company to pay $572 million in the first ruling in the U.S. holding a drugmaker accountable for helping fuel the epidemic,” per CNBC.com. This landmark case is the first of about 1,900 federal lawsuits…

In late December of 2018, federal prosecutors announced that Michael Babich, former CEO of Insys Therapeutics, agreed to plead guilty to participating in a bribery scheme which gave kickbacks to doctors in exchange for prescribing a powerful opioid painkiller. Babich, who resigned his role as CEO of the Arizona-based drug manufacturing firm, was scheduled to…

Januvia and Byetta, along with Janumet and Victoza, are the diabetes drugs at the center of 945 lawsuits. The cases had originally been dismissed, but a federal appeals court overturned that decision in December of 2017, and remanded the cases back to U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia in the Southern District of California. He has…

Drug manufacturer Hospira has recalled Naloxone, the medication commonly used by first responders, medical professionals, and hospitals to quickly reverse suspected conditions of an opioid overdose. The National Institute on Drug Abuse states that Naloxone works as an opioid antagonist, attaching to opioid receptors in the brain. Therefore, when it is administered to a drug…

The drug Zinbryta has been recalled on a voluntary basis by its manufacturers according to the recommendation of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in cooperation with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Zinbryta (daclizumab) was approved by the FDA in May 2016 for the treatment of individuals suffering from various relapses of multiple sclerosis (MS).…

FDA officials have now added a boxed warning label to obeticholic acid (Ocaliva), a liver disease medicine, in order to emphasize the proper dosing patients with rare chronic liver disease should follow. The FDA announcement states that the designated daily dosage for obeticholic acid, manufactured by Intercept Pharmaceuticals, has been incorrect. Instead, the dosage has…

Anti-psychotic drug Nuplazid (pimavanserin) is manufactured by Acadia pharmaceuticals and approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for treating Parkinson’s disease patients with debilitating psychosis. The process of approval used for Nuplazid allowed an expedited pharmaceutical safety review by categorizing this drug as a breakthrough therapy. Instituted by Congress in 2012, this breakthrough therapy classification…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers about an over-the-counter teething medication for infants and children under the age of two that could be harmful. The agency says that products containing benzocaine are dangerous and pose a serious risk to infants and children under two. Benzocaine is used to treat sore gums,…

Recent findings provided by the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) detail the connection between the use of several diabetes drugs and the elevated risk of toe amputation. The diabetes drugs that pose this serious risk to patients are classified as sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors used to treat individuals with…