Current Events

A scientific panel that shaped the federal government’s policy for testing the safety and effectiveness of painkillers was funded by major pharmaceutical companies that paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the chance to affect the thinking of the Food and Drug Administration, according to hundreds of e-mails obtained by a public records request.

The e-mails show that the companies paid as much as $25,000 to attend any given meeting of the panel, which had been set up by two academics to provide advice to the FDA on how to weigh the evidence from clinical trials. A leading FDA official later called the group “an essential collaborative effort.”

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Federal meat safety inspectors might still have their jobs on Day Two of the government shutdown — keeping steaks, hamburgers, turkey and chicken safe for human consumption — but what about the rest of the food on our plates?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, responsible for 80 percent of the food supply, is halting routine food inspections. This means no government oversight of practically everything else in the grocery store. Also, most of the experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the group that identifies and tracks food borne illnesses, have been told to stay home.

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The impact of the federal government's shutdown is just beginning to be felt. One area affecting car owners is that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will not be posting any new recall notices as of today.

A note on NHTSA's website, which isn't easy to locate if you're not a regular user of the site, reads:

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Federal investigators found shoddy manufacturing on the Southwest 737 whose ceiling peeled away in flight in 2011, but not widespread problems among the popular aircraft.

Southwest Flight 812 decompressed April 1, 2011, while heading from Phoenix to Sacramento. The plane landed in Yuma, Ariz., after a strip of fuselage skin 5 feet long and 8 inches wide flapped open above the left wing.

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BMW will recall about 76,000 vehicles from the 2012-14 model years that are equipped with turbocharged 2-liter 4-cylinder engines because of a loss of power brake assist, the automaker has informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

BMW says the oil supply for the vacuum pump that operates the brake booster used for power assist can be “interrupted,” Matthew Russell, a BMW spokesman, wrote in an e-mail. The brakes will still function, but the driver will have to press much harder on the brake pedal. That means stopping distances could be greater, Mr. Russell said.

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C.R. Bard Inc. and four other makers of vaginal-mesh implants accused of injuring women are in talks to settle thousands of lawsuits, people familiar with the discussions said.

Lawyers for Bard, Endo Health Solutions Inc. (ENDP), Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX) and two other companies making vaginal inserts to support women’s pelvic muscles and treat incontinence have begun talks about settling all suits over their products, the people familiar with the matter said. Johnson & Johnson, which also faces suits over the inserts, isn’t involved in the talks, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

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(Reuters) - U.S. health regulators have strengthened the warnings on two blood cancer drugs to reflect the risk that they may reactivate the hepatitis B virus in patients previously infected with the disease.

The warnings affect GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Arzerra, which was approved in the United States in 2009 to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL); and Rituxan, a drug made by Roche Holding AG and Biogen Idec Inc that is approved to treat a variety of conditions including CLL, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis.

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When Bruce Peterson left the U.S. Postal Service after 24 years delivering mail, he started a travel agency. It was his dream career, his wife Shirlee said.

Then he went to see cardiologist Samuel DeMaio for chest pain. DeMaio put 21 coronary stents in Peterson’s chest over eight months, and in one procedure tore a blood vessel and placed five of the metal-mesh tubes in a single artery, the Texas Medical Board staff said in a complaint. Unneeded stents weakened Peterson’s heart and exposed him to complications including clots, blockages “and ultimately his death,” the complaint said.

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A 75-year-old Boca Raton widow won $3.8 million late Friday from a Palm Beach County jury that agreed two tobacco giants were responsible for the death of her husband.

The jury deliberated about six hours before announcing that it had found Lorillard Tobacco Co. and R.J. Reynolds mostly responsible for the death of Frank Gafney, a lawyer who died of lung cancer in 1995 at age 59. His widow, Kathleen Gafney Hanners, filed suit on his behalf.

During closing arguments, tobacco attorneys agreed smoking caused Gafney’s lung cancer. However, they argued that Gafney smoked because he enjoyed it despite the risks. His ability to quit for a year in the mid-1970s to get a better deal on his life insurance policy proved he wasn’t addicted, could quit anytime he wanted but simply enjoyed smoking. Therefore, they argued, they weren’t responsible.'

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C.R. Bard Inc. agreed to settle a woman’s claims that one of its vaginal-mesh implants caused internal problems before a trial set for this month in New Jersey, two people familiar with the accord said.

Bard officials agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to resolve Melanie Virgil’s claims that Bard’s Avaulta Plus insert caused urinary problems, said the people, who asked not to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the settlement. Virgil’s case had been set for a Sept. 23 trial in state court in Atlantic City, according to court dockets.

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Christopher Ellison went to a veterans medical center in Philadelphia to get eight teeth extracted in 2007. What should have been a routine dentist visit left him permanently incapacitated.

The $17.5 million Ellison and his family received in a malpractice judgment against the Department of Veterans Affairs was the largest against the agency in a dozen years -- and one of more than 400 payments the U.S. government made last year to resolve VA malpractice claims, according to agency records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The total cost came to $91.7 million, also the highest sum in at least 12 years.

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