Articles by Riley Griffin

US to Deploy More Than $50 Million to Shield Private Hospitals From Cyberattacks

The US government is seeking to play a more active role in protecting the private health-care sector from a deluge of cyberattacks that have disrupted patient care and left providers unpaid. US health officials will unveil Monday a new program …

Hack That Paralyzed US Health Care Turns Up Scrutiny on Insurer

When a cyberattack on Change Healthcare paralyzed much of the US health-care system, some lawmakers saw it as proof its parent company, UnitedHealth Group Inc., was too big. UnitedHealth Chief Executive Andrew Witty saw it differently. He has said that …

Cancer Clinics Face Cash Crunch After Hack Rocks US Health Care

Doctors across the US are stretching to keep their practices afloat as a debilitating cyberattack on a once little-known company at the center of the health-care system continues to cause havoc. The Feb. 21 attack against Change Healthcare, a subsidiary …

Tainted Medication Fears Spur Defense Department to Seek Outside Testing

The US Department of Defense entered an agreement with Valisure, an independent lab that’s spotted dangerous chemicals in a variety of widely used pharma and consumer products, to test medications amid surging concerns about generic drug quality and shortages. Under …

Was It an Act of War? That’s Merck Cyber Attack’s $1.3 Billion Insurance Question.

By the time Deb Dellapena arrived for work at Merck & Co.’s 90-acre campus north of Philadelphia, there was a handwritten sign on the door: The computers are down. It was worse than it seemed. Some employees who were already …

J&J Hit with Year’s Largest Jury Award Over Marketing Risperdal Drug to Teens

Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen unit was hit with an $8 billion punitive-damages verdict — the largest jury award in the U.S. this year — over its alleged mishandling of an anti-psychotic drug blamed for causing adolescent boys to grow female-sized …

Opioid Trial Judge, Overseeing 2,000 Lawsuits, Denies Bias, Refuses to Step Down

The Cleveland judge overseeing more than 2,000 federal lawsuits over alleged opioid abuses refused to disqualify himself from a bellwether trial set to start next month, rejecting a request by drug distributors and pharmacies who say he is biased against …

Other Opioid Lawsuit Plaintiffs Welcome Oklahoma Ruling Affirming Public Nuisance

While some Johnson & Johnson investors were relieved that the company’s $572 million penalty for fueling Oklahoma’s opioid epidemic wasn’t as high as feared, lawyers for other U.S. states, cities and counties could hardly contain their glee. That’s because the …

Drug Maker Endo Skirts Trial, Settles Its Opioid Claims for $11 Million

Endo International Plc agreed to an $11 million settlement to avoid going to trial in the first federal court cases targeting opioid makers and distributors over the public-health crisis caused by the painkillers. Endo said Tuesday it will pay $10 …

J&J Vows to Overcome Baby Powder, Opioid Liability Claims Against It

Johnson & Johnson said that the health-care conglomerate will come out on the winning side of thousands of legal claims over its baby powder and opioid products. Last week, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Justice Department was pursuing a criminal …