Latest Drugs Headlines
All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.
$1.5 Million Pharmacy Robot Promises to Reduce Medical Drug Errors
Apr 28 2008 // A new pharmacy robot at Loyola University Hospital is designed to eliminate the type of life-threatening human medication errors that injured actor Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins. Loyola’s pharmacy recently began...
Vermont Considers Special Car Locks for Repeat Drunk Drivers
Apr 23 2008 // The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee says he wants Vermont to study special ignition locks for repeat drunken drivers that would require a clean breath test before allowing a car to be started. “My intention...
U.S. Watchdog Critical of FDA Foreign Drug Oversight
Apr 22 2008 // U.S. authorities increased inspections of foreign drug plants last year but still checked only a fraction of sites that supply medicine ingredients to the U.S. market, a government watchdog is set to tell Congress...
La. AG Drops Predecessor’s Case Against Biotech Company
Apr 10 2008 // Louisiana’s attorney general has withdrawn a multimillion-dollar antitrust lawsuit his predecessor filed on his final day in office against drug-maker Amgen Inc. Former Attorney General Charles Foti hired several...
Thalidomide Victims Seek $6.3 Billion
Apr 3 2008 // Half a century after the launch of the notorious morning sickness pill thalidomide, its surviving victims are demanding €4 billion ($6.3 billion) in compensation from the German government and the drug’s maker. A...
Riskier Drugs Tied to Faster U.S. Approval, Industry Financing
Mar 27 2008 // The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sped up the approval process for new drugs since pharmaceutical firms began to help finance it, which has increased the number of recalls and unanticipated side effects,...
It Figures
Mar 10 2008 // $41 Million A $41 million settlement has been reached between pharmacy benefits management firm Caremark Rx LLC and 29 states over charges that the company and two of its subsidiaries, Caremark LLC and CaremarkPCS LLC...
N.H. Reports Progress in Curbing Underage Drinking
Mar 3 2008 // The rate of underage drinking by high school students has decreased in New Hampshire, as well as the number of outlets selling alcohol to minors, according to a report by a nonprofit advocacy group. However, alcohol...
U.S. Judge Nixes Shareholder Suit Against Pfizer Over Failed Drug
Feb 29 2008 // A U.S. federal judge Thursday granted Pfizer Inc.’s motion to dismiss a shareholder lawsuit that alleged the company hid information and made misleading claims about a failed experimental cholesterol drug in order to...
Calif. AG Settles Antitrust Lawsuit Against Barr Pharmaceuticals
Feb 26 2008 // California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. settled an antitrust lawsuit on Monday that charged Barr Pharmaceuticals with taking $20 million for keeping off the market a cheaper, generic version of the oral...
Employers, Lawmakers Push Doctors to Adopt Electronic Prescriptions
Feb 22 2008 // Motivated by mounting medical costs, lawmakers and executives are urging doctors to embrace a seemingly simple way to save billions of dollars a year: prescribe medications online. Officials in the public and private...
Caremark to Pay $41 Million in Settlement to Washington, Other States
Feb 19 2008 // Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna announced that Washington will receive nearly $1.7 million as part of a $41 million settlement between 29 states and Caremark Rx, LLC, one of the nation’s largest...
Democrats Blast FDA Labeling Rule as Liability Shield for Drug Makers
Feb 10 2008 // Proposed rules limit when drug manufacturers can change warnings labels without FDA approval The Bush administration wants to limit the situations where drug companies can change warning labels when they know of unsafe...
Calif. High Court Rules Employers Can Fire Workers Using Medical Marijuana
Jan 28 2008 // Employers can fire workers found to have used medical marijuana even if it was legally prescribed, the California Supreme Court ruled last Thursday, dealing the state another setback in its standoff with U.S. law...
Democrats Blast FDA Labeling Rule as Product Liability Shield for Drug Makers
Jan 25 2008 // The Bush administration wants to limit the situations where drug companies can change warning labels when they know of unsafe conditions without waiting for government approval. But Democrats charge that the recent...
Supreme Court to Review $6.8M Vt. Verdict Against Drug Maker
Jan 23 2008 // A drug manufacturer won Supreme Court review last week of a $6.8 million verdict in the case of a woman whose arm had to be amputated after she was injected with one of its medications. A jury in Vermont awarded the money...
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...
