The FDA required new manufacturing standards for the blood thinner after the problems were linked to tainted ingredients from China. At the time of the recall, Baxter controlled about half of the entire U.S. market for blood thinners and anticoagulants. Baxter only began a full recall after other drugmakers assured they would be able to provide an adequate national supply.

The key ingredient in Heparin is made from pig intestines and the world’s supply of crude heparin comes from China due to the large number of pigs required. The contaminants were introduced into process in China before the crude heparin was shipped to Baxter in Wisconsin but the company did not detect the contaminants and allowed the product to be sold to American consumers.

Public trust in the safety of drugs and medical products must be safeguarded by rigid manufacturing standards and thorough oversight by the FDA. A key component of ensuring the public trust is the ability of injured consumers to be able to sue the negligent manufacturers. This compensates the innocent victims and forces accountability by the drugmakers.

During golf games, a doctor agreed to start new patients on Zyprexa for each time a sales representative parred, or put the ball in a hole within a predetermined number of strokes. If the sales rep parred four holes, the doctor agreed to prescribe Zyprexa to four new patients.

The notes were made public in South Carolina’s lawsuit against Lilly over Zyprexa marketing practices. State officials contend Indianapolis-based Lilly marketed the drug for unapproved uses and seeks to recoup $200 million it contends it wrongfully spent on Zyprexa prescriptions for ailments other than the approved schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. The state also is seeking a $5,000 fine for each Zyprexa prescription dating back to 1997 that could result in billions of dollars in fines.

Lilly resolved a marketing investigation over Zyprexa in January with the U.S. Justice Department, promising to pay $1.42 billion, including about $362 million to more than 30 states. South Carolina opted not to join that settlement. The only trial of a state’s lawsuit ended with an out-of-court settlement in which Lilly agreed to pay Alaska $15 million.

Zyprexa has been linked to excessive weight gain and diabetes. The lawsuits claim Lilly, faced with the loss of patent protection for its antidepressant Prozac, pushed its sales force to market Zyprexa for numerous non-FDA approved ailments including depression, anger and agitation and failed to properly warn of Zyprexa’s side effects. Lilly already pled guilty to a federal criminal charge of off-label promotion of Zyprexa for use in elderly patients.

Eli Lilly’s Zyprexa scam is just the latest in a long line of examples of a huge drugmaker unjustly enriching itself in the billions of dollars at consumers’ expense.

No one challenges ezetimibe’s (the active ingredient in Zetia and Vytorin) effectiveness to lower LDL or bad cholesterol. That was the basis on which the FDA granted approval. The larger question is whether ezetimibe prevents heart disease and death. The Enhance study published in 2008 showed Vytorin did no better job of treating clogged arteries than statins alone. A second Seas study had similar results and generated additional controversy by publishing data that Vytorin users appeared to die more often of cancer.

The American public should not be enriching the pockets of giant pharmaceutical companies to the tune of $21 billion for drugs that are not proven to be effective for the purpose patients are using them. The FDA must be more rigorous in demanding adequate research before approving these huge profit-making drugs. Imagine how patients who have been buying and taking Zetia and Vytorin feel when they could have been saving money and had similar or better results taking plain old niacin?

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.

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.

A recent Senate Special Committee on Aging report demonstrated the extent of Forest’s Lexapro marketing plan. Federal prosecutors in Boston have filed a lawsuit against Forest claiming the company illegally marketed Lexapro as well as a related antidepressant Celexa for use in children and paid kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe them to children. Records indicate Forest is among the top five drug manufacturers, along with Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, and Merck in payments of money and food to doctors who prescribe antidepressants. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), the chairman of the Committee on Aging is investigating these marketing tactics used by the pharmaceutical industry.

Why should we care? For example: a month’s supply of 5 mil tablets of Lexapro costs on average $87.99 compared to just $14.99 for a month’s supply of a generic version. Do the math and it’s easy to see who’s getting taken for a ride. With the majority of Americans demanding health care reform, apparently the profitable ride the drug companies have been enjoying hopefully will soon come to an end.

In addition to their president Tauzin, PHRMA boasts 55 other former members of Congress on their payroll. In fact, 52% of PHRMA’s army of lobbyists hired to promote the interests of drug companies, health insurers, hospitals, health professionals and industry groups were former employees of Congress, the White House or federal agencies. So far over 3,300 have registered to lobby on health care issues… that amounts to six lobbyists for every congressman.

In the current health care reform debate, Pharma has spent $18 million on lobbyists and anti-reform advertising. Thus far, they have been successful in defeating legislation that would have allowed cheaper prescription drug imports from Canada and legislation that would have lowered drug reimbursement prices for Medicare. With billions in potential profits at stake, if Pharma is successful in defeating any further health care reform, their money will have been well spent, but at a tragic cost to consumers’ rights and their pocketbooks.

Public Citizen criticizes this too-cozy relationship as providing exceptional inside access to special interest groups. However, since the revolving door is one of the most effective ways of influence-peddling on Capitol Hill, it’s not likely to stop anytime soon. And a duck is still a duck.

The ingredient at issue is drospirenone which is combined with estrogen and progestin to prevent pregnancy. The plaintiffs allege that drospirenone causes an increase in potassium which can lead to hyperkalemia. This condition is marked by unsafe levels of potassium that can disrupt normal heart rhythms and slow the flow of blood leading to potential clotting.

These new suits allege the pension funds were defrauded by Bayer’s hiding the risk of the side effects which led to incorrect estimates of the value of both Bayer as a company and Yaz and Yasmin as the company’s top-selling pharmaceutical product totaling $1.8 billion last year. Just last month, the FDA warned Bayer about quality control issues at a company plant that produces the drospirenone. That followed previous repeated warnings about Bayer’s inaccurate advertising about Yaz and Yasmin’s safety and effectiveness.

Women should carefully consider before using risky pharmaceutical products whose efficacy is in doubt and the benefits are far outweighed by the potential side effects.

Last year a consumer survey found that 68% supported legislation requiring public disclosure of financial relationships between physicians and industry. 78% believed that doctors who accepted gifts from the pharmaceutical industry were influenced to prescribe certain drugs. The problem is that everyone wants to trust his/her doctor and only 34% said they would be likely to ask their doctors about the troubling financial ties. Patients feel awkward about questioning their doctor and are not likely to create negativity or alienate them.

To address the ever-increasing reach of the giant companies, Sens. Herb Kohl (D-MN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have introduced the Physician Payments Sunshine Act which would require all payments more than $100 made by a drug or medical device company to a doctor be reported. These payments have been characterized as “research” or “gifts” in the past.

You can bet the big pharma/medical lobbyists will fight passage of this proposed legislation. They will cloak their opposition to this change by trying to hide behind their standard mantras of doctor/patient confidentiality and interference with medical research. This bill would eliminate the transparency problem and benefit patients who are unlikely to challenge their doctors for the greater public good. We should urge our elected representatives to support the Sunshine Act.

Pfizer illegally promoted its drugs by treating doctors to all-expense paid “consultant meetings” at resorts across the world. Perks included massages, golf outings and meals, among other things.

And why should we care? Because it ends up costing all of us. $1 billion of the penalty will reimburse Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health care programs funded by taxpayers. At a time when all consumers are tightening their belts and watching their budgets, health care costs continue to escalate due in part to greed and illegal profiteering by pharmaceutical makers like Pfizer.

Pfizer recently announced its intentions by years end to acquire its rival Wyeth for $68 billion bolstering its position as the world’s largest drug maker by revenue. Apparently the rich get richer despite record criminal penalties. Go figure.

As injury attorneys who have represented thousands of clients injured by defective medical devices and pharmaceuticals, we know the importance of our court system in holding negligent manufacturers responsible. Our regulatory system alone cannot do the work of protecting consumers. The tort system is an important complement to any federal oversight. We call on Congress to pass, and President Obama to sign, the Medical Device Safety Act and to restore the rights of injured patients.

Vytorin, a combination of two drugs called Zetia and Zocor, was a top-selling drug intended to reduce cholesterol. Millions of Americans were prescribed the drug in an effort to reduce cholesterol by reducing arterial plaque. Significant revenue was generated for Merck and Schering-Plough through these prescriptions.

There was one problem though. Merck’s own clinical trial to study the effectiveness of the drug, called ENHANCE, allegedly showed that Vytorin was ineffective in reducing arterial plaque. Merck did not release the results of the study and, instead, continued to make money selling Vytorin.

Consumers would have little hope of successfully or economically bringing individual suits to recoup money paid for a worthless drug. Class actions, however, allow similarly situated consumers to pool all of their claims together in an effort to secure justice from companies who have cheated them. We are proud to have represented tens of thousands of consumers from throughout the country in consumer protection class action lawsuits. Consumer class actions oftentimes represent the best and only way for consumers to obtain justice.