Negative reports keep flooding in regarding Merk & Co. Inc.’s popular vaccine, Gardasil. Gardasil was approved two years ago by the Food and Drug Administration to prevent the spread of human papillomavirus, a virus that is known to cause cervical cancer in a small percentage of the women and girls who contact it.

According to the FDA, Gardasil has been the subject of about 8,000 “adverse event” reports since the drug went on the market. Complaints range from nausea to paralysis and a total of 15 reported deaths. Approximately 16 million American girls and women have been given Gardasil, which has in general been widely supported by schools and other institutions, especially here in Texas.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention contends that none of the reported deaths were due to the receipt of Gardasil, but continues to investigate the negative reports.

The California Pharmacy Board is working towards citing and fining 94 California hospitals and their corresponding head pharmacists for not complying with a recall of the contaminated blood thinner Heparin.

In February, drug manufacturer Baxter Healthcare ordered a full recall of Heparin after concerns that the medication was contaminated. They stated that the drug was to be removed from circulation and not administered to patients.

However, in at least 29 of the California cases investigated, hospital pharmacies were thought to still be using the tainted Heparin. While the amounts of the fines are yet to be determined, the hospitals may face fines from both the California Pharmacy Board and the Department of Public Health.

Contaminated heparin is suspected in nearly 100 deaths and many hundreds of injuries over the last year. Several patients have file heparin lawsuits in order to begin recovering damages.

Pfizer’s quit-smoking drug, Chantix, has been removed from the Yokata Air Base pharmacy due to reports of possible adverse symptoms.

Chantix is extremely popular with military personnel, and luckily those at the Yokata Air Force base are not permanently cut off— refills are only suspended until the patient receives renewed approval from his or her physician and opts to continue the medication, at which point the pharmacy will special order the drug.

Though none of the Chantix patients at Yokata have reported any problems with the drug, groups like Public Citizen and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices have been bombarding the Food and Drug Administration with detailed complaints, calling for a black-box suicide warning, the strongest safety alert the FDA can administer.

In the United States, Chantix has been linked to at least 40 suicides and 400 attempted suicides. Other issues supposedly caused by using Chantix include heart rhythm disturbances, movement disorders, glycemic problems like diabetes, and traffic accidents.

If it is true that Chantix is the cause of these adverse reports, the drug was responsible for nearly 1,000 serious injuries just in the fourth quarter of last year. This is more than any other single drug during that same time period.

People who have had an adverse reaction to this or any other drug should consider contacting an experienced Chantix attorney for professional insight.