News tagged with 'Arthritis'

The FDA is requiring TNF blockers to carry stronger warnings highlighting the increased risk of cancer in children and adolescents who receive these drugs to treat juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.

The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for investor fraud lawsuits to continue against Merck over painkiller, Vioxx.   Merck had argued that the statute of limitations expired. The high court will have to determine when you actually start the clock on the two-year statute of limitations. 

Promotion for the painkiller, Vioxx, took the form of entire phony medical journals, court documents reveal in the Australian class-action lawsuit underway.

Bayer filed a federal lawsuit against Abbott Laboratories for its best-selling drug, Humira, alleging it infringes a patent granted to Bayer in 1997. Bayer has asked the court to find that Abbott has infringed the patent, which expires on August 2014 and to award damages.

American doctors regularly prescribe placebo pills that are intended only to have a psychological effect, according to new study findings in the October issue of BMJ.

When Vioxx was pulled from the market in 2004, due to concerns that it increased the risk of heart attack, stroke and death – many assumed that discontinuing use would end the associated health risks. But, now, a new study suggests that the risks increased nearly twofold, and persisted for a year or more after stopping use.

Eight states including Florida are suing drugmaker Merck & Co alleging deceptive marketing of the recalled painkiller Vioxx. The state wants to recover $80 million it reimbursed consumers under federal health plans. Olympians Dorothy Hamill and Bruce Jenner once fronted ads for Merck, though there is no indication they knew about the downside of the drug.

Glucosamine and chrondroitin offer many sufferers of osteoarthritis relief from pain. But research from the National Institutes of Health, Alternative Medicine division find that the natural supplements have mixed results, largely disappointing.  Some of the researchers take fees from pharmaceutical giants, the research discloses.  

Genentech is revising the label on its drug Rituxan after a woman who was treated with it died from a rare brain infection known as progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

A new study finds arthroscopic knee surgery is no better than conservative treatments to relieve knee pain caused by arthritis. A study conducted in 2002, by the Department of Veterans Affairs, also published in NEMJ, came to a similar conclusion.

The manufacturers of arthritis drugs have been ordered to strengthen existing warnings on the drugs’ prescribing information and Medication Guides, on the risk of developing a possibly fatal fungal infection.

Attorneys working for clients who are part of the Vioxx settlement will see their fees capped at 32 percent.That was the ruling yesterday from the U.S. District Judge Fallon overseeing much of the massive litigation over the dangerous painkiller. He estimated that hundreds of law firms will divide $1.55 billion as part of the contingency fee arrangement.

Karolinska Institute in Sweden found that people who drink up to five glasses of wine a week have the risk of rheumatoid arthritis reduced by up to 50 percent, compared to those who drink very little. 

The FDA is investigating whether drugs given to treat rheumatoid arthritis and Chrohn’s disease over a decade, led to the development of lymphoma and other cancers in children and young adults.   Among young people and children given TNF blockers, between 1998 and 2008, 30 have developed cancers.  

As if breast feeding was not good enough for baby, a Swedish study says that women who breast-fed for over a year had a substially reduced risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis, a painful auti-immune disease.