pharmaceutical industry

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case involving Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s top selling drug, Copaxone, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The case could impact patent litigation, including because Teva asked the Supreme Court to require the Federal Circuit to be more deferential to lower court ruings.

According to a transcript of a press conference given by Attorney General Eric Holder, Johnson & Johnson and three of its subsidaries will pay $2.2 billion to resolve claims of off-label marketing of prescription drugs and paying kickbacks to physicians and pharmacies:

"We are here to announce that Johnson & Johnson and three of its subsidiaries have agreed to pay more than $2.2 billion to resolve criminal and civil claims that they marketed prescription drugs for uses that were never approved as safe and effective – and that they paid kickbacks to both physicians and pharmacies for prescribing and promoting these drugs.  Through these alleged actions, these companies lined their pockets at the expense of American taxpayers, patients, and the private insurance industry.  They drove up costs for everyone in the health care system and negatively impacted the long-term solvency of essential health care programs like Medicare. This global settlement resolves multiple investigations involving the antipsychotic drugs Risperdal and Invega – as well as the heart drug Natrecor and other Johnson & Johnson products.  The settlement also addresses allegations of conduct that recklessly put at risk the health of some of the most vulnerable members of our society – including young children, the elderly, and the disabled."

ProPublica and This American Life put together a pretty amazing reporting project about how 150 Americans die every year by taking too much acetaminophen, Tylenol's active ingredient, and that there were decades-long delays in providing updated consumer warnings that using too much of over-the-counter painkillers with acetaminophen could lead to liver toxicity and even death. This spring, I reported for The Legal Intelligencer that a federal multidistrict litigation for plaintiffs who allege that their use of over-the-counter Tylenol caused their livers to fail or be poisoned was approved to be presided in front of U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania: http://www.law.com/jsp/pa/PubArticlePA.jsp?id=1202594695498&slreturn=201...

Many more cases may be generated in the MDL in light of this reporting project.

If you haven't read and/or listened to ProPublica and This American Life's reportage, here it is:

http://www.propublica.org/article/tylenol-mcneil-fda-kids-dose-of-confusion

http://www.propublica.org/article/tylenol-mcneil-fda-use-only-as-directed

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/505/use-only-as-d...

Read more: http://www.law.com/jsp/pa/PubArticlePA.jsp?id=1202594695498&slreturn=201...

http://www.law.com/jsp/pa/PubArticlePA.jsp?id=1202594695498&slreturn=201...