It was announced last week that Actavis Totowa LLC is recalling all lots of Digitek. A spokesperson for the company said that 11 reports of serious illness have been linked with Digitek. The spokesperson said that the company is not aware of any deaths in relation to the recall.

Digitek is a prescription medication used to treat abnormal heart rhythms and heart failure.

Tests of Digitek show that the reported illnesses may be caused by overdose. Some tablets of the drug might are thought to contain at least twice the FDA approved dose of the active ingredient.

All lots of the prescription drug are being recalled. Digitek is distributed under the “Bertek” label by Mylan Pharmaceuticals. It is also distributed under a “UDL” label by UDL Laboratories Inc.

Defective drug attorneys are working on cases in which serious illness has resulted due to the negligence of drug companies.

Throughout the country, medical facilities are looking to computers to help decrease the amount of prescription drug errors. Medical facilities throughout New Hampshire are beginning to adopt a computerized medical record system.

The new system will have a doctor input medical information and prescriptions directly into a laptop. This will help to prevent medical errors and prescription errors caused by misread or bad handwriting.

In this new system, prescriptions will be entered into the laptop and sent directly to the pharmacy, which is intended to prevent prescription fraud and errors.

Currently, prescription errors caused by handwriting accounts for a large percentage of medical malpractice and prescription drug related injuries and fatalities.

Defective drug attorneys are working on cases in which severe adverse reactions are attributed to prescription drugs.

          In February a landmark decision was made affecting the rights of consumers. The Supreme Court voted 8-1 against the plaintiff in a case in which he claimed the manufacturer of a medical device was responsible for injuries he suffered when the device burst during heart surgery. The Class III device was a Medtronic catheter that was being inserted into his coronary artery when it was over-inflated by the doctor. The plaintiff sued the doctor and Medtronic. 
          The plaintiff lost the case because the court found that 1) the Medtronic catheter had been sufficiently tested and 2) the “pre-emption clause” in the Medical Device Amendments of 1976 overruled common-law claims about the effectiveness and safety of medical devices approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
          This decision by the Supreme Court will have an influence on future product liability lawsuits, especially since it covers both warnings and design defects for medical devices approved by the FDA. Because of this ruling, it may become more difficult for victims of faulty Class III medical devices to seek justice for injuries and damages caused by faulty, dangerous, or defective products.

          If you or a loved one has been harmed by a product, contact the product liability lawyers at Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP at 1-800-460-0606.

University of Washington professors have published an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association that shows that the makers of Vioxx were well aware of the drug’s dangers before the major recall.

The article, which was published on Tuesday, April 15, 2008, shows that Merck knew about the dangers of Vioxx in 2001. Merck had internal knowledge that the patients enrolled in clinical trials were dying at three times the rate of the patients who were on placebos.

The article asserts that Merck minimized the actual number of deaths that resulted from Vioxx and withheld information from federal officials.

An attorney for Merck claims that the pharmaceutical company disclosed all documents to federal officials.

Vioxx was prescribed for arthritis and pain management. Merck promoted the drug as a safer alternative to aspirin. A major recall of Vioxx was issued in 2004 after numerous reports of serious illness and death were attributed to the drug. Data was submitted to the United States Food and Drug Administration as early as 2000 regarding the dangers associated with Vioxx.

Defective drug attorneys are working on cases in which serious illness and fatalities have occurred due to prescription drugs like Vioxx.

A study conducted by Dr. Salman Hyder at the University of Missouri shows that there is a link between common Hormone Replacement Therapies and breast cancer.

A newly released report claims that pharmaceutical company Merck engaged in various forms of scientific deception to downplay risks of the painkiller Vioxx and promote the drug’s sale.  Merck disguised in-house studies to appear to have been conducted by independent scientists at medical schools, according to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.  Information for the report was gathered using thousands of documents uncovered during Vioxx-related lawsuits.

On April 14, 2008, the United States Pharmacopeial (USP) Convention announced that it is working closely with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop new testing that is more sensitive to contaminants in Heparin.

This announcement came after a major recall of Heparin in January. About 19 deaths and hundreds of adverse reactions are being attributed to a contaminated main ingredient manufactured in China. The contaminant was not immediately discovered during testing because of it’s similarity to the main ingredient of Heparin.

The contaminant is over-sulfated chondroitin, which is used to treat joint inflammation. It is assumed that the contaminant was used because it mimics the blood-thinning abilities of Heparin and is cheaper than the main ingredient in Heparin

The FDA asked the USP to assist them in reviewing the current quality tests of Heparin and to help develop new methods of contaminant detection.

Defective drug attorneys are working on cases in which serious illness has developed because of exposure to contaminated prescription drugs.

A study conducted in Belgium at the University of Ghent observed that women who take oral contraceptives are at a higher risk of building up plaque in their arteries.

The form of plaque that is built up as a result of birth control pills is atherosclerotic plaque, which is compromised of a calcium, cholesterol and bacteria. It adheres to the lining of the arteries, leaving women at high risk for heart problems.

Of the participants of the study, at least 81 percent had taken oral contraceptives for at least a year and 27 percent were currently taking them. The researchers performed ultra sound examinations of both leg and neck arteries to measure the level of plaque build up.

Once the results were collected, it was shown that every 10 years of oral contraceptive use correlated to an increase of plaque build up of 20 to 30 percent.

The increase of plaque build up can cause an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.

The study shows that new research needs to be conducted on the safety of oral contraceptives.

Defective drug attorneys are working on cases in which serious or fatal illness has occurred due to dangerous drugs.

A personal injury lawsuit was filed against Baxter Healthcare in the federal court of New Jersey. The announcement was made on April 3, 2008.

The lawsuit concerns a near fatal adverse reaction that is attributed to contaminated Heparin that was manufactured and marketed by Baxter Healthcare. The lawsuit seeks damages for medical expenses, physical pain and punitive damages.

The lawsuit comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported that hundreds of severe reactions have occurred due to a contaminant in Heparin. The contaminant has been traced to a Chinese manufacturing facility where a chemically altered form of chondroitin sulfate was introduced to Heparin. Chondroitin sulfate is used as a dietary supplement use to treat joint pain from arthritis.

Defective drug attorneys are currently working on similar cases in which serious illness has occurred due to manufacturer neglect.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stated that the chemical that contaminated the blood-thinner Heparin was a version of a compound that is commonly used to treat arthritis. The chemical is over-sulfated chondroitin sulfate and it is not approved for use in prescription drugs in the United States. The FDA says that it is not an ingredient in Heparin.

Investigators are now trying to determine how the substance was introduced into Heparin and if it is the cause of over 700 adverse reactions to Heparin. Investigators do not know if the substance was introduced to Heparin intentionally or not.

In the tested quantities, over half of the main ingredient was found to be the contaminate substance. The substance was overlooked during quality testing since it looks and acts like Heparin.

The FDA is currently working with Chinese authorities to determine how the substance was included with the main ingredient, which is imported from China.

About 19 Americans were killed by contaminated Heparin.

Defective drug attorneys are currently working on cases that involve serious or fatal illness caused by defective prescription drugs.