Latest Drugs Headlines
All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Vermont Rethinks Law Curbing Drug Firms’ Use of Prescription Data
Jan 17 2008 // A new Vermont law restricting the drug industry’s use of data on doctors’ drug prescribing habits is facing a federal lawsuit and a new round of scrutiny. The law, which was amended in the waning days of last...
S.D. Legislature Rejects Revision of Workers’ Compensation Law
Jan 14 2008 // Rejected in the Legislature Friday was an attempt to revise state workers’ compensation law so injured employees who drink or use illegal drugs on the job must prove that those things were not substantial factors in...
N.Y. Judge Rules Evidence in Celebrex Case Unreliable
Jan 11 2008 // A New York court has ruled that plaintiffs suing Pfizer Inc. over its pain medication Celebrex do not have reliable scientific evidence to prove the drug can cause heart attacks and strokes at the 200-milligram dose, the...
Squabble Over Mich. Drug Law Intensifies After Vioxx Settlement
Dec 23 2007 // More than 1,000 Michigan residents could end up getting part of a $4.85 billion national settlement if they or their loved ones took the painkiller Vioxx. But that hasn’t squelched a firestorm over the state’s...
Squabble over Mich. Drug Law Intensifies after Vioxx Settlement
Dec 17 2007 // More than 1,000 Michigan residents could end up getting part of a $4.85 billion national settlement if they or their loved ones took the painkiller Vioxx. But that hasn’t squelched a firestorm over the state’s...
Union General Offers Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Market in California
Dec 10 2007 // Union General of Concord, Calif., has an “A+” rated carrier offering coverage for facilities specializing in care and treatment of drug and alcohol abusers, including for profit and nonprofit centers and...
Pa. Judge Overturns $3 Million Award in Wyeth Prempro Drug Case
Dec 10 2007 // A woman who claimed that Wyeth’s hormone-replacement drug caused her breast cancer did not have sufficient evidence to show that the company acted negligently, said a judge in Pennsylvania who overturned a $3 million...
Police: Jailed La. Couple Had Home Torched to Get Bail Money
Dec 10 2007 // A Monroe, La., couple already jailed on drug charges now face more trouble over an alleged scheme to have someone set fire to their home so they could collect insurance money to make bail. Orrell M. “Red”...
Workers’ Compensation Prescription Drug Study: Costs Stabilizing
Dec 3 2007 // There are some signs that the workers’ compensation prescription drug share of total medical costs is leveling off – at least temporarily, according to a National Council on Compensation Insurance study updated...
Neb. County Implements Special Drunken-driving Court
Nov 27 2007 // Scotts Bluff County, Neb. has been approved for a pilot program for a drunken-driving court. The county already offers an adult drug court, a juvenile drug court and a family drug court. Crystal Newton, problem-solving...
Federal Panel Asks Miss. Court to Clarify Medical Malpractice Limits
Nov 19 2007 // A federal appeals panel is asking the Mississippi Supreme Court to clarify when the clock starts ticking on the filing of certain medical malpractice claims. Specifically, a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...
Study Targets Prescription Savings in Workers’ Comp for Chronically Injured
Nov 7 2007 // Chronically injured workers – those who remain injured for four years or more – represent only 17 percent of all injured workers, but account for 45 percent of all workers’ compensation prescriptions, and...
Mo. Lawsuit Alleges Walgreen’s Error Caused Miscarriage
Oct 23 2007 // When Chanda Givens began feeling sick and throwing up about a month into her pregnancy, she wrote it off as morning sickness. It was only after the suburban St. Louis woman miscarried a month later that she learned the...
Nevada Jury Awards Millions in Wyeth Drug Trial
Oct 15 2007 // A Nevada jury levied a $35 million judgment against pharmaceutical giant Wyeth in a lawsuit filed by three Nevada women who claimed the company’s hormone replacement drugs caused their breast cancer. Initially, the...
Merck Says First Fla. Jury Finds Vioxx Not Liable for Heart Attack
Oct 9 2007 // Drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. said Friday the jury in a Florida liability case involving its painkiller Vioxx decided in the company’s favor. The company said the jury found it was not liable for plaintiff Refik...
Health premiums rise 6.1%; average family coverage costs $12,000
Sep 24 2007 // Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average of 6.1 percent in 2007, less than the 7.7 percent increase reported last year but still higher than the increase in workers’ wages (3.7 percent) or the...
Health premiums rise 6.1%; average family coverage costs $12,000
Sep 24 2007 // Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average of 6.1 percent in 2007, less than the 7.7 percent increase reported last year but still higher than the increase in workers’ wages (3.7 percent) or the...
N.Y. City, State Join Suit Over Vioxx
Sep 19 2007 // New York State and City have sued Merck & Co. Inc., joining thousands of others who say the drug maker cheated government insurance programs by hiding the dangers of heart problems associated with its pain medication...
Health Premiums Rise 6.1%; Average Family Coverage Costs $12,000
Sep 12 2007 // Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average of 6.1 percent in 2007, less than the 7.7 percent increase reported last year but still higher than the increase in workers’ wages (3.7 percent) or the...
Vioxx Federal Judge Sees 2008 Focus on Stroke Cases
Jul 30 2007 // Next year’s federal Vioxx trials may focus on people who had strokes after taking the once popular painkiller, the judge assigned to handle pretrial matters in all 8,575 federal lawsuits said last Friday. “We...
