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› $4.85 Billion settlement in drug case
As many as 300 product-liability lawsuits may be filed in the Illinois state court against drug maker Baxter International Inc., by people injured by or families who lost loved ones to contaminated batches of the blood thinner heparin. Per a judge’s order last year, attorneys are working to convert an aggregate lawsuit to individual claims against the Deerfield, Illinois-based drug company.
Four lawsuits were filed last month in Cook County, Illinois court against the makers of the blood thinner heparin, claiming the product the company manufactured was contaminated and caused patients to die.
Pharmaceutical giant Baxter International faces yet another lawsuit, this time for playing a role in the distribution of a contaminated saline syringe that was used on a woman who afterward suffered serious medical problems that may have led to her death a year later, according to the Hays Daily News.
Scientists are proposing new standards for testing the quality and safety of heparin with new equipment that can analyze a broader range of impurities than the screening tools currently in use, according to the Daily Herald. The proposal stems from last year’s tainted heparin scandal that resulted in the deaths of more than 80 Americans and illness in hundreds more. Batches of heparin were later found to have been contaminated with oversulfated chondroitin sulfate (OSCS) during manufacturing at Baxter International’s China plant. OSCS is a heparin-mimicking contaminant that can cause serious allergic reactions in humans.
The insurance companies for Scientific Protein Laboratories’ parent company, American Capital Ltd., are suing to nullify the policies with the laboratory, according to The Daily Record. The Wisconsin-based company entered a joint venture with Baxter International Inc. to produce heparin in China. Last year, heparin produced at that plant was found to have been contaminated with oversulfated chondroitin sulfate (OSCS), a heparin-mimicking material that can cause life-threatening allergic reactions. The contaminated heparin killed more than 80 people in the U.S. and sickened hundreds more before several batches of the blood thinner were recalled.
Actor Dennis Quaid and his wife Kimberly now have closure in their year-long heparin overdose lawsuit against Cedars-Siani Medical Center, according to OK! and Entertainment Tonight. The entertainment media reported that a Los Angeles judge has signed off on the $750,000 settlement the couple reached with Cedars-Siani last month. According to the settlement, the hospital did not admit wrongdoing in the potentially fatal overdose of heparin that was accidentally administered to the couple’s newborn children Zoe Grace and Thomas Boone Quaid. The settle also allows for the couple to pursue claims for their children in the future. The California Department of Public Heath fined Cedars-Siani $25,000 for the error.
The highly publicized lawsuit between the family of actor Dennis Quaid and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has been settled, according to The Lowell Sun/Associated Press. Documents show that the Quaids have agreed on a $750,000 settlement with the hospital. The Quaid twins nearly died after they were accidentally given 1,000 times the intended dose of the blood thinner heparin shortly after birth. The settlement allows the couple to pursue claims for their children in the future.
Drug maker Baxter International Inc., shelled out more than $720,000 in the third quarter of the year lobbying on health care issues including government reimbursement for kidney dialysis treatment and increased funding for kidney disease education, according to Forbes/Associated Press.
Despite heparin-recall woes earlier in the year, Pharmaceutical drug giant Baxter International announced that it had a 19 percent increase in third-quarter profits, according to a Baxter International press release.
Next month the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that could decide whether people harmed by prescription drugs could recover damages for their injuries by suing in state courts. The pharmaceutical industry argues that manufacturers whose drugs are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should be protected from liability, according to the Natural News.
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