Sokolove Success Blog – Our Perspective on Legal News that Matters

Ghostwriters employed by Wyeth cranked out articles and reviews of clinical studies that touted the benefits of the drugmaker’s hormone replacement therapy while downplaying its risks, according to Georgetown University Medical Center researchers. The articles, published in medical journals, included four about low-dose Prempro that were meant to address concerns that hormone replacement therapy increases breast cancer risk.

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Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) has been approved by the FDA for just one kind of spinal fusion surgery. Now a new study in Spine finds that at least 85 percent of spine operations that use the bone growth factor are for non-approved, off-label purposes.

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BP’s internal investigation into the Deepwater Horizon debacle acknowledges the company’s role in the accident that killed 11 workers and spewed oil into the Gulf of Mexico – but it also spreads the blame to other parties including Halliburton and Transocean for what BP says were a “complex and interlinked series of mechanical failures, human judgments, engineering design, operational implementation and team interfaces” that led to the disaster.

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Rush University Medical Center will pay $6 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a transplant patient who received an infected kidney and then contracted bacterial meningitis, which caused the patient to suffer brain damage when the center failed to treat him for the disease.

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A federal suit has been filed under Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act alleging that Coca-Cola and a subsidiary made false advertising claims regarding Vitaminwater, according to Law.com (subscription required). The lawsuit, which claims that Vitaminwater violates the FDA’s “jellybean rule,” is part of a trend of taking aim at popular beverages’ marketing and labeling.

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The makers of two popular green tea drinks — Dr. Pepper Snapple Group and Unilever Inc. — have been warned by the Food and Drug Administration not to make unauthorized nutrient claims for their products, Canada Dry Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale and Lipton Green Tea. The warnings are part of an FDA crackdown on food companies that overstate a product’s benefits.

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A new study published in Health Affairs pegs the cost of medical malpractice at $55 billion annually in the U.S. – a figure that includes $45 billion in so-called “defensive medical costs” incurred when physicians seek to avoid lawsuits by ordering unnecessary tests or treatments. Overall, med mal costs comprise 2.4 percent of total health care expenditures in the US, according to the study.

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More than 3,000 patients at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic may have been infected with Hepatitis C by a former employee who was diverting drugs from patients by injecting himself with a narcotic drug in a syringe, then replacing the needle and filling the syringe with saline for patients’ IV lines.

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Diagnostic errors are rarely discussed in the debate over how to improve medical care and patient safety, says, Dr. Robert M. Wachter, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Yet diagnostic error rates average about 10 percent across various conditions, according to Dr. Wachter.

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Dental sealants prevent cavities – and may expose children to bisphenol A (BPA), according to a new study in Pediatrics. BPA in saliva can be detected for up to three hours after dental sealing, although levels of the chemical fall quickly.

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