Purdue Pharmaceutical to pay $600 million

The makers of the popular (many people say too popular) painkiller Oxycontin have pleaded guilty to misleading regulartors, doctors and patients about how genuinely destructive their product can be. Purdue Pharmaceutical originally patented the drug back in 1996 and it was privy to one of the biggest marketing campaigns in the history of the painkilling industry. The reason why they’ve had to admit liability and pay a $600 million dollar settlement is that the fact that they originally marketed Oxycontin as a safe alternative to Vicodin and Percocet, that was substantially less prone to be addictive.

Are you kidding me? Within four years the stuff had literally taken over rural America as the drug of choice for both experienced dope-heads and high school kids alike. The chemical compound for Oxycontin is the exact same as heroin. The only difference is that Oxycontin is never cut with anything and produces a clean, consistent high every time- something you don’t get with heroin (apparently).

“Misbranding” drugs is a federal crime. And a lengthy amount of prosecutorial disclosure has showed an extreme amount of complicity on the part of Purdue Pharmaceutical executives to deliberately cover up the destructive effects of their heroin tablets.

Granted, many people need Oxycontin after painful surgery or cancer treatments of to control the pain of terminal illness or amputation. But college kids should not be crushing these up and horking them up their noses. But no, Purdue Pharmaceutical wanted to make sure that it found its way into the medicine cabinets of regular pain sufferers. All to make a buck.

The most expensive marketing campaign in the history of painkillers produced a lot of profits and a lot of ruined lives. In the grand scheme of things, $600 million dollars seems a bit light.

Hip Replacement recall

A number of hip implants are starting to fall apart according to a recent report from the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. I originally stumbled on this news on a BBC website several weeks ago. Basically the scandal boils down to a company named Smith & Nephew (never trust your nephew) making a bunch of hip replacement parts and then shipping them over to the UK. Following that, they were shipped to hospitals to await use in surgery.
Eventually, somebody back at the office discovered that an “inappropriate mixing of head and cup sizes due to incorrect labelling of the cups” caused the things to basically fall apart. They issued what the Brits call a “medical device alert” and UK health professionals were all advised to send the hips back.

The two big parts of the hip replacements come in various sizes. Unfortunately, due to what was basically a labeling error at the assembly plant, the parts were mis-sized.

Unfortunately, a few hips had already found homes.

According to the BBC story, “Two UK patients have had their hip implants replaced after a labeling error meant they were given the wrong size.” Do these people not have quality control? Hip-replacement surgery is tough enough for a senior citizen to have to deal with, let alone having to get it done more than once FOR THE SAME HIP. Does nobody check these pieces of vital equipment that probably cost several thousand dollars? This type of oversight is completely wrong and can you believe that the company hasn’t even been sued yet? Can somebody get these people a lawyer?
The scariest part about this is that only half of the replacement hips affected by the re-call have been recovered. Who knows where the other ones are?

CLASS ACTION SUIT LOOMS AFTER CANADIAN CANCER OFFICIAL STEPS DOWN OVER ALLEGATIONS OF GROSS INCOMPETENCE

A large segment of the American population is starting to point to Canada’s government-run healthcare a potential model for the new system that America sorely needs. However, despite what Michael Moore might have you think (and we all love Mike), Canada is not immune to healthcare scandals.

George Tilley, chief of the province of Newfoundland’s largest health board, resigned after a massive public outcry over faulty cancer diagnosis. The focal point of this healthcare scandal is based in a series of small communities in an area called Burin Peninsula. An incompetent radiologist had been practicing for more than a decade in this area and a string of faulty cancer diagnoses have resulted in an unprecedented backlash. After an extensive internal investigation, faults were found at the highest level.

The Wall Street Journal Health Blog contains some concrete details on the extent of this series of deadly mistakes. “At least 36 women in eastern Canada died of breast cancer after a common medical test produced the wrong result. And more than 300 women who are still alive also received the wrong result on the test, which measures whether a tumor is sensitive to hormones. The test is important because tumors that are hormone-sensitive can be treated by powerful drugs such as tamoxifen.”

The provincial government had formed an agreement with a company called Eastern Health to provide testing and diagnostic equipment in the Burin Peninsula area. The CEO of Eastern Health only announced his resignation after a massive public outcry erupted over Eastern Health’s public handling of the scandal.

The WSJ Health blog also reported that “news emerged that more than 1,000 of the tests performed between 1997 and 2005 may have been flawed. But it was not until this week that the government of Newfoundland and Labrador fully disclosed the toll taken by the errors, the Globe and Mail reports this morning.” 

The Cancer Blog also reports that “George Tilley now faces class-action lawsuits from individuals that apparently received inaccurate breast cancer testing results.”