Avandia, the diabetes drug that in the news right now is connected with heart attacks.  Approximately 10,000 of the currently 13,000 lawsuits pending are going to be settled as part of this settlement.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc agreed to pay about $460 million to resolve a majority of lawsuits alleging the company’s Avandia diabetes drug can cause heart attacks and strokes, people familiar with the accords said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/13/health/main6675648.shtml

While this may be a big step for resolving a lot of the lawsuits, it is not the final conclusion of all the cases. In most cases and I expect it is the same with this one, each person will have the opportunity to opt out of the settlement and continue to pursue a lawsuit outside of the settlement.  Now I can’t say that this is what you should or not do, it’s just a possible option.

In even more significant and shocking news is that a report from the Senate indicates

The maker of controversial diabetes drug Avandia knew for around a decade that the medication increased risks of heart problems in patients but covered up that fact from the public, according to a Senate Finance Committee probe.

Internal company emails showed GlaxoSmithKline “attempted to downplay scientific findings about he safety of Avandia as far back as 2000,” according to a committee press release.

According to a New York Times report Tuesday, SmithKline Beecham began testing on the drug in 1999 to see how it compared to a rival pill, the Takeda-manufactured Actos. The results showed signs that Avandia posed a heart risk.

In a March 29, 2001 e-mail about the study, SmithKline executive Dr. Martin I. Freed wrote: “This was done for the U.S. business, way under the radar. Per Sr. Mgmt request, these data should not see the light of day to anyone outside of GSK.” The company became GlaxoSmithKline after a 2000 merger.  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/13/health/main6673320.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Related articles by Zemanta

• GlaxoSmithKline Settles Majority of Avandia Lawsuits Ahead of FDA Panel Vote (dailyfinance.com)
• Editorial: The Avandia Saga Continues (nytimes.com)

I read this over at the South Carolina Nursing Home Blog.  Look at how small the amount is for the median damage award.  It’s only $28,000.  The vast majority of people do not win millions of dollars.

Major findings from the 2005 Civil Justice Survey of State Courts include—
• A jury decided almost 70% of the approximately 26,950 general civil trials disposed of in 2005.
• About 60% of the general civil trials included in the survey involved a tort claim and about a third involved contractual issues.  Most of the tort cases involved motor vehicle accidents.
• Plaintiffs won in almost 60% of trials overall.
• The median damage award for plaintiffs who won monetary damages in general civil trials was $28,000.
• Punitive damages were awarded to only 5% of plaintiff winners in general civil trials in 2005.
• In the nation’s 75 most populous counties, the number of general civil cases disposed of by jury or bench trial declined by about 50% from 1992 to 2005.

Almost two-thirds (62%) of all plaintiff award winners were awarded $50,000 or less. A small percentage (about 4%) of all plaintiff award winners were awarded $1 million or more.

There were only 2,449 trials involving medical malpractice which amounts to 9.1%.  This is interesting since we know there are 100,000 deaths caused every year from medical malpractice.

Thanks to the South Carolina Nursing Home Blog for finding this.

A study recently completed shows that complications arising form birth happen more frequently at night

Picking the time of day to give birth may not be a choice many women can make but it could influence her chances of a smooth delivery, according to a Dutch research.

A study of more than 700,000 births at Dutch hospitals between 2000 and 2006 found that the risks of newborn death and admission to the neonatal intensive care unit were higher with nighttime than daytime deliveries.

The study found that the rates of injury where generally higher overnight.  The story does go on to say that in developed countries the risk of birth injury is still very low indeed.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100614/lf_nm_life/us_births_complications

Cerebral Palsy Statute of Limitations