Mega-drug manufacturer Novartis Pharmaceuticals took a $3.2 million hit in its extremely large wallet thanks to a Montana jury who found in favor of a nurse who developed degenerative jaw problems after taking Zometa.

This is the first trial in the country of a claim involving the bone-strengthening drug. Worse news for Novartis is the effect the verdict will likely have on 500 other consolidated Zometa cases currently pending in New Jersey state courts and federal court in Tennessee.

In the Montana case the plaintiff developed serious dental and jaw-related problems after taking Zometa for several years. Her condition is incurable and will result in lifelong disability. Her lawsuit alleged Novartis knew patients taking Zometa were vulnerable to a degenerative jaw disorder called osteonecrosis or bone death, particularly patients who undergo invasive dental procedures such as tooth extraction. She claimed Novartis failed to adequately warn her or her doctors of the risks.

At trial Novartis was accused of playing down the drug’s risks and obscured and delaying the release of information to the public and medical community in order to control the public relations fallout from the disclosure and maximize their marketing of the drug. Internal emails introduced at trial showed Novartis knew of the drug’s risk through its own extensive research communicated by its medical research and marketing departments to company executives who actually tried to suppress the information.

Novartis claimed their warnings were adequate and the risks were included in their labels. According to the plaintiff’s attorney the Zometa label is on a small piece of paper in tiny print that is barely readable and folded 20 times like an accordion. If the label were printed in normal 12 point font it would be 22 pages long.

This is just the latest egregious example of a drug manufacturer putting profit over patient safety. The only way the public has to put a stop to this type of activity is to bring successful products liability cases in court that forces these giant corporations to do the right thing and inform consumers and the doctors prescribing these drugs.

Banks will have to secure their customers’ consent before charging large overdraft fees on ATM and debit card transactions, according to a new consumer protection rule which will take effect July 1, announced Thursday by the Federal Reserve. The rule responds to complaints from consumer groups, member of Congress and other regulators that the overdraft fees are unfair because many people assume they can’t spend more on a debit card than is available in their account. Instead, many banks allow the transactions to go through, then charge fees of up to $25 to $35.

For small purchases, the penalty can exceed the actual cost of the transaction.

Banks will be required to notify new and existing customers of their overdraft services and give customers the option of being covered. If customers don’t “opt in,” any debit or ATM transactions that overdraw their accounts will be denied, Fed officials said. If a consumer wants checks and regular electronic bill payments to be covered in the event of an overdraft, those transactions aren’t covered by the rule.

The FDA announced a new program to hopefully reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries caused by drug dosage errors. The Safe Use Initiative aims to identify drugs and circumstances that commonly result in misuse of medications which has become an alarmingly large problem. These errors include accidental overdoses, dispensing the wrong medication or wrong dosage and drug quality defects which are estimated to cost up to $4 billion each year. According to a National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine report, there are about 1.4 million preventable medication errors each year.

The FDA is calling on doctors and other healthcare professionals to help identify particular drugs and circumstances that repeatedly present problems. Additionally, the FDA is scrutinizing the information provided to patients such as package inserts, labels and instructions from pharmacists, most of which is completely unregulated.

These efforts to improve patient safety from medication errors is long overdue. Easier to read and understand packaging, dosage aids and instructions is a good first step in reducing preventable medical errors.

An accident involving an 18-wheeler on La. Highway 28 East in Pineville caused traffic to back up on the Expressway. The incident occurred at the intersection with Pine Grove Street.

Pineville Police report all four lanes of La. 28 were to be reopened around 5:30, but that it may take a while for traffic to resume flowing. An eye witnesses stated that traffic was backed up for miles.

Our question is simple: why did the 18-wheeler accident occur? Had the truck driver been driving too long? Was the truck in the wrong lane of travel at impact?

What other factors exist for this inconvenient and needless wreck? The lesson here is to drive defensively around these behemoth tractor/trailer 18-wheelers.

AARP and Christus St. Frances Cabrini Hospital have teamed up to host a four-hour driver refresher course for individuals 50 years of age and older in Alexandria. These courses are extremely important since statistics show that older drivers account for 14% of all traffic fatalities and 17% of pedestrian fatalities. As our general population continues to age, more and more elderly drivers will be behind the wheels. To help cut down on elderly driver involved car crashes, refresher courses should be encouraged and promoted.

The good news is that older drivers tend to wear seat belts more often than younger drivers and are involved in less drunk driving situations. They also are less aggressive, obey speed limits and are generally more courteous than younger drivers. However, as people age their reflexes, vision and hand-to-eye coordination lessens. To keep on top of their driving game elderly drivers should be encouraged to keep up their driving skills through these type of programs and of course, to have regular physical and vision checkups.

A Consumer Union Study has again found measurable levels of Bisphenol A (BPA) in a variety of canned foods. I previously blogged about the research showing adverse affects to animals exposed to high levels of BPA. The concern is that as Americans, especially children, continue to consume larger quantities of prepared foods including canned products, the higher the levels of BPA they are exposed to. Consumer advocates have long called for the banning of the chemical additive in materials that come in contact with food and beverages.

Even scarier is that some of the tested foods were labeled “BPA free”. The FDA has been conducting a review of the scientific evidence and expects to make a decision by the end of the month. Can linings, baby bottles and sippy cups are the likely products to be targeted.

The marketing arm of the manufacturing industry, the American Chemistry Council insists the BPA exposure levels are low and within safety standards despite several countries already banning its use. Six major U.S. retailers have voluntarily removed BPA-containing baby bottles from their shelves earlier this year.

Hopefully the FDA will make the correct decision and ban BPA from the US market. The manufacturers have safer alternatives and should not put the safety of their customers at risk with dangerous and defective products.

A jury in Philadelphia found giant pharmaceutical maker Pfizer Inc. liable and ordered it to pay $75 million in punitive damages and $3.7 million in compensatory damages to a woman who developed breast cancer after taking the menopause drug Prempro. Pfizer faces another potential verdict in a similar lawsuit expected to end in a few weeks.

In addition to the two women involved in these lawsuits, over 6 million women have taken hormone-replacement medicines to treat their menopause symptoms. Pfizer combined their estrogen-based drug Premarin with progestin-laden Provera to make the drug Prempro. Sales of hormone-replacement drugs topped $2 billion annually until a 2002 U.S. National Institute of Health Women’s Health Initiative Study suggested women using these medicines had a higher breast cancer risk.

The Philadelphia jury ordered the punitive damages because they found the drugmaker’s conduct was willful and wanton including their executives’ hiding Prempro’s cancer risks to pump up sales and the company’s use of ghostwritten articles in medical journals to market the drug and deflect criticism of their actions.

This jury verdict, along with three others won by plaintiffs recently, may be sending a message to the giant drugmakers that consumers have had enough of being the unwitting victims of profit over patient safety. These types of verdicts are the only way individuals have to force these huge companies to face justice for their negligent actions. That’s why its critically important to publicize the facts of what happened to these individual plaintiffs so their rights are not trampled by the heavily-funded lobbying by big business for tort reform designed to insulate themselves from liability.

In this wrongful death case in Cook County, Illinois, a 27-year old private contractor was working on a road surface on an Illinois Tollway testing reflective lane markings on I-294 when a semi-truck owned by the defendant violently rear-ended the Tollway truck that was protecting him, pushing the Tollway truck into the plaintiff killing him.

The plaintiff was a newlywed with a 25-year old wife who was 3-months pregnant. A witness, who happened to be another 18-wheeler driver behind the defendant, testified that the defendant driver never slowed or swerved before crushing the Tollway truck. He also told the jury that the left lanes were free and clear, so the accident was entirely avoidable.

The defendant admitted negligence, but contended that Illinois Tollway was also negligent in the accident for not protecting the plaintiff’s decedent. Illinois Tollway denied any negligence in this case. After a trial that lasted 6 days, the jury found the defendant and their semi-truck driver at fault. The jury found Illinois Tollway not guilty.

Two consumer groups recently obtained data compiled on the dangers of driving while using a cell phone which was buried by the Bush administration. According to a former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official, the 2003 report was never made public despite the data showing 955 fatalities and 240,000 automobile accidents were caused by cell phone users in 2002 alone. The head of the agency says he was politically pressured to shelve the study and kill a proposed long-term study despite evidence that distracted drivers are four times more likely to crash than other drivers.

As a result, multi-task driving has become commonplace and hundreds of lives were unnecessarily lost. Several efforts were made during the time of the study to limit cell phone use while driving. Had the research been made public, the legislation which was killed by opposition from the cell phone industry might have passed.

Public safety is supposed to be the paramount concern of the NHTSA but during the Bush administration, political considerations held sway. Cellphone use, and especially text messaging has exponentially increased since the 2003 study so it is even more important that restrictions be passed and enforced to keep drivers from distractions and on the road ahead.

Amerisafe, a Louisiana based workers’ comp insurance company has earned almost $2 million dollars more this quarter as compared to last year.

There might be a recession for the injured workers but the insurance companies are getting stronger.