Posts Tagged ‘pharmaceuticals’

“Lawyers Hope to Do to Opioid Makers What They Did to Big Tobacco”

As the Wall Street Journal reports, former Mississippi attorney general and longtime Overlawyered favorite Michael Moore has been collaborating with Ohio Attorney General Michael DeWine, with other elected government attorneys, and with other trial lawyers to seek lift-off of suits against painkiller makers and distributors. The headline was “Lawyers Hope to Do to Opioid Makers What They Did to Big Tobacco,” which got several of us going on Twitter:

Parlay sweetheart attorney general contracts into multi-billion-$-fees? https://t.co/t9OQ2zupwm

— Walter Olson (@walterolson) July 24, 2017

Which in turn played off Jonathan Adler’s:

Create a highly profitable cartel that funds state projects & is protected by federal regulations? https://t.co/2Vxf9ujp2W

— Jonathan H. Adler (@jadler1969) July 24, 2017

And Gabriel Malor’s:

Get astoundingly rich with the help of Congress? https://t.co/VUxoX9bC6P

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) July 24, 2017

Mine drew a number of responses, including this from Bloomberg View business columnist Joe Nocera:

Damn straight! That's the business model.

— Joe Nocera (@NoceraBV) July 24, 2017

And:

Don't forget: …and actually secure the future of the manufacturers, with the consumers the only ones who lose anything.

— Carl V Phillips (@carlvphillips) July 24, 2017

Woo Hoo! I can't wait until I get to tell a cancer patient all I can give her is a Tylenol! ?

— Bona Felis (@scsloan01) July 25, 2017

In a more conventional op-ed vein, there’s this from Tiger Joyce.

Filed under: illegal drugs, Michael Moore, opioids, pharmaceuticals, tobacco settlement

Medical roundup

Protecting Access to Care Act: “House passes medical malpractice bill” [Kimberly Leonard/Washington Examiner, GovTrack, Todd Shryock/Medical Economics, my earlier]
“FDA’s Gottlieb Hints at a Huge Overhaul of Health Tech Regulations” [Mike Riggs, Reason]
“Law Review Article on Off-label is On Target” [Stephen McConnell, Drug & Device Law on Conners, “Illuminating the Off-label Fable: How Off-label Promotion May Actually Help Patients”]
There’s a British website called Stop Suing the NHS, here is a sample post, and here is more about the writer, Susanne Cameron-Blackie;
Another survey ranks New York worst state for doctors, trial lawyer supremacy in legislature a major reason [Thomas Stebbins, Gotham Gazette]
Iowa law requires Certificate of Need for freestanding surgical centers. Sweet deal for exempt hospital competitors [Eric Boehm/Reason, Mike Rappaport/Law and Liberty]

Filed under: FDA, hospitals, medical malpractice, New York, pharmaceuticals, tort reform

Medical roundup

Whether or not California’s 1975 MICRA law limiting medical liability serves as a model for anything national, its results merit study by other states [H. Thomas Watson, Robert H. Wright, and S. Thomas Todd, WLF]
No, Kaiser Health News and Scientific American, a 1-in-3 rate of post-marketing drug safety alerts does not prove FDA too lax [“Scott Alexander,” Slate Star Codex]
Jim Hood Watch: “Mississippi AG, with the help of outside attorneys, sues pharma companies over allegedly unapproved drugs” [Jessica Karmasek, Legal Newsline]
When deconstruction met evidence-based medicine and denunciations of “microfascism” ensued [Dave Holmes et al., International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare, 2006 via Nicholas Christakis]
Sen. Joe Manchin’s “approve one opioid, yank another from market” bill to tie FDA hands is a bad idea [Jeffrey Singer, Huffington Post]
Death by a thousand clicks: what Boston doctors can’t stand about electronic medical records [John Levinson, Bruce Price and Vikas Saini, WBUR]

Filed under: FDA, Jim Hood, medical, medical malpractice, MICRA, pharmaceuticals

Steve Berman takes on pharmaceutical pricing

Profile of veteran class action and mass action lawyer Steve Berman of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro quotes me [Damien Garde, STAT]:

“You will search with some difficulty for people who successfully do what he does and do not have a big personality,” said Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies. “As is the case with birds, it helps both to deter competitors and intimidate enemies when you have a large feather display.”

Filed under: pharmaceuticals, Steve Berman

Medical roundup

“Texas Bill Would End ‘Wrongful Birth’ Suits Against Doctors” [Insurance Journal, earlier on wrongful birth]
Worse outcomes mean more risk of being sued: “Doctors are refusing to operate on smokers.” [Karen Garloch, Charlotte Observer/Macon Telegraph]
2015 breakdown by state of medical malpractice suits per capita and aggregate payouts (the latter not broken down per capita, but with Northeastern states, as usual, far overrepresented) [Becker Hospital Review] Note: figures challenged, see comments;
“…and the medical board voted to dismiss the complaint against you.” [Birdstrike, White Coat]
Britain considers limiting cost (legal fee) awards in lower value medical claims [John Tingle, Harvard “Bill of Health”]
Will not surprise those who’ve been around: pharma cos. might fight attempts at easing FDA drug introduction rules [Bloomberg] Muscular dystrophy patients can see the case for drug importation [Alex Tabarrok who is interviewed on the subject by Robert Gebelhoff] Related on FDA: Ronald Bailey, Reason.

Filed under: FDA, medical malpractice, pharmaceuticals, tobacco, United Kingdom, wrongful birth and wrongful life

Medical roundup

States that are best at deploying coercive public health laws are also generally unable to resist meddling of other sorts [Werner Troesken via Vincent Geloso, Notes on Liberty]
Artificial intelligence in medical practice could help curb defensive medicine — if the law cooperates [Shailin Thomas]
“How Two Florida Hospitals Used the Power of the State to Stop Another From Being Built” [Eric Boehm, Reason]
Organ transplants and the right to try [Sally Satel, Volokh/AEI]
“Stronger malpractice laws may not prevent surgical complications” [Reuters/Fox News]
State attorney general intervention and drug prices [Marc Kilmer/Maryland Public Policy Institute, Dan Menefee/Maryland Reporter]

Filed under: defensive medicine, hospitals, medical malpractice, pharmaceuticals, public health

“How a supplement maker tried to silence a Harvard doctor”

“A Harvard researcher dared to call out potentially dangerous dietary supplements. Then he got taken to court.” [StatNews on suit against Pieter Cohen, which resulted in a defense verdict]

Filed under: libel slander and defamation, pharmaceuticals, science and scientists

Medical roundup

U.S. Surgeon General’s office, WHO campaign against vaping, e-cigarettes. Lessons of harm reduction forgotten [Jacob Sullum, Jonathan Adler, Todd Krainin]
Plenty of other hospitals are willing to do this surgery. Catholic facilities should have conscience right to refuse [AP/NJ.com on St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center case, Stephen Miller/IGF]
Study: states with stronger physician protection from malpractice suits had lower usage of imaging tests [Radiology Business on Suhui Li et al., Journal of the American College of Radiology]
Hospitals that require employees to take flu shots to protect patients and others may pay dearly if they’re stingy with the religious exemptions [Jon Hyman]
“Maybe For-Profit Hospitals Aren’t So Bad” [Shailin Thomas, Harvard “Bill of Health”]
“New Study Finds 90% of California Pharmaceutical Plaintiffs are from Other States” [U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform on Mark Behrens study for CJAC]

Filed under: Catholic Church, defensive medicine, forum shopping, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, tobacco

Food and Drug Administration roundup

“The agency’s fear of Type II errors inhibits drug development and harms patients.” [John Cohrssen and Henry Miller, Regulation]
Where’s the agency headed under Trump? [Alex Tabarrok; more on slow FDA hiring] Further on drug prices [Ira Stoll]
Which is more dangerous: the battery pack in a vaping set-up, or getting between Sen. Schumer and a camera? [Nick Gillespie; Steven Greenhut and David Bahr on the case against the FDA’s “deeming” rules]
Speaking of things the new administration should try to undo, don’t forget the bad stuff the agency is up to on pipes and cigars [Rick Newcombe, Reason]
Cal. Gov. Brown signs “right to try” legislation [L.A. Times] Advocates propose federal version [Liz Szabo, MedCityNews] Related earlier;
FDA peculiarly confident that radical reductions in salt intake in food supply will result in health benefits [Ronald Bailey, Reason]

Filed under: FDA, pharmaceuticals, tobacco

Medical roundup

“Judge Says He’s Had Enough Of Weeding Through Baseless Lawsuits, Threatens Sanctions” [Daniel Fisher; M. D. Georgia judge on vaginal mesh cases]
More on pricey regulated generics [Scott Gottlieb/WSJ, earlier on EpiPen, more on latter from Joel Zinberg/City Journal]
Feds ban pre-dispute arbitration agreements in nursing home care [McKnights]
How Ronald Reagan’s FDA responded to the AIDS crisis — and it’s probably not the story you’ve heard [Peter Huber, City Journal; see also from Carl Cannon in 2014]
FDA regs likely to winnow smaller, distinctive makers from the cigar business, recalling a Somerset Maugham story [James M. Patterson] Debunking the “Helena miracle,” once more: no link between local smoking bans and short-term drops in heart attacks [Jacob Sullum, earlier here and here]
“Ethicists make the case for bone marrow transplantation markets” [Ilya Somin]

Filed under: AIDS, arbitration, FDA, nursing homes, pharmaceuticals, smoking bans, tobacco