Product Liability: Pharmaceuticals
The American Law Journal
December 22, 2006

Just because a pharmaceutical product is prescribed off-label, doesn't predispose it to litigation. But add suspect marketing tactics with questionable off-label use and the result is a legal system facing massive lawsuits.

"I don't think the regulatory status of a drug as being off-label really makes a difference," states Stephen McConnell, "as a doctor you may prescribe a drug as 'on-label' and make a mistake. And it hurts somebody. That's what really matters - did the doctor make the right choice prescribing that drug for that patient?"

"I am concerned that evidence has not been reaching the public," says Stephen Sheller. "Someone should be carefully collecting the data and disseminating off-label information to the public. And that's the problem: once a drug is on the market, this information is not collected adequately." Dr. Jeffrey Lenow responds by saying "there's no question that physicians are not reporting adverse effects (of off-label use) as aggressively as they should because it is inconvenient to do so. It's a lament we have in the industry. It's a rock and a hard place."

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Product Liability: Pharmaceuticals
The American Law Journal
December 22, 2006

Just because a pharmaceutical product is prescribed off-label, doesn't predispose it to litigation. But add suspect marketing tactics with questionable off-label use and the result is a legal system facing massive lawsuits.
Read More...

Jury Verdict Review & Analysis
The Jere Beasley Report
October 26, 2006

$150,000,000 TOTAL RECOVERY - CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT - PHARMACEUTICAL NEGLIGENCE - ALLEGED FRAUD INVOLVING SCHEME BY PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY TO INFLATE RETAIL PRICE OF DRUG LUPRON - RICO CLAIMS - VIOLATION OF CONSUMER PROTECTION STATUTES.
Read More...

How Drug Companies Use and Abuse Medical Journals
The Jere Beasley Report
October 2006

New Jersey Superior Court Judge Carroll Higbee, who oversees all the Vioxx litigation in New Jersey, recently granted a new trial in a Vioxx case won by Merck in 2005. The judge reasoned the Merck had withheld evidence of three deaths from an article that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Read More...