Current Events

A pair of drugmakers in India that the U.S. is counting on to produce generic blood-pressure pills after a far-reaching recall have been faulted by regulators for quality-control issues.

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Following a new cybersecurity alert this week from Microsoft, the FDA’s Dr. Suzanne Schwartz is urging medical device manufacturers and hospitals to remain vigilant about protecting their electronic systems.

Schwartz, who is acting director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Strategic Partnerships and Technology Innovation, said in an emailed statement that manufacturers and the hospitals who buy their wares both have roles to play in keeping electronic health tools secure.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co is recalling nearly 273,000 Ford Fusion and Ranger pickup trucks in North America that could roll away if the gear is not in “park” mode, the second largest U.S. automaker said on Wednesday.

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In January, Columbia University revealed that four patients at its Irving Medical Center in New York had been sick with an unusual version of E. coli , a common gut bacterium. Although the news largely escaped attention in the media, it ricocheted through the world of infectious disease experts. E. coli is a relatively common bacterium and benign when it’s in the gut, where it usually lives, but in the wrong places—such as in lettuce or ground beef, or our bloodstream—it can turn deadly. When antibiotics prove ineffective against an E. coli infection, as many as half the patients with it die within two weeks.

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It is something we've all heard before: Generic drugs are the same as brand-name drugs. They contain the same active ingredients and their manufacturers are supposed to prove they work the same way as the brand-name counterparts. Many of those generics come from abroad, though, with 80 percent of active ingredients and 40 percent of finished drugs coming from outside the U.S.

But are all of those drugs manufactured overseas really the same?

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A coalition of attorneys general from 43 states and Puerto Rico claim in a federal lawsuit that generic drug manufacturers conspired to fix prices and markets of 114 drugs for both minor infections and chronic diseases such as arthritis, cancer, diabetes and HIV.

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Most states are keeping a close eye on opioid overdose deaths, but they may need to start focusing on cocaine and other stimulants as well.

It turns out that the same lethal drug that has been driving the nation’s spiraling opioid epidemic is also causing an historic surge in overdose deaths among cocaine users.

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WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court opened the door Monday for iPhone users to sue Apple over excessive prices on its exclusive App Store.

Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the court's newest member, wrote the 5-4 antitrust opinion and was joined by the court's four liberal justices. The other four conservatives dissented.

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A jury in Oakland, Calif., ordered Monsanto on Monday to pay a couple more than $2 billion... after finding that its Roundup weed killer caused their cancer — the third jury to conclude that the company failed to warn consumers of its flagship product's dangers...

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In 2017, there were a total of 59 deaths attributed to airline accidents. In 2018, there were 561. When I did the math, I was taken aback; deaths attributed to airline accidents had jumped 900% year-over-year. And if present trends are not reversed, it appears that airline deaths will rise further in 2019.

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A Tesla Model X wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by the family of Walter Huang who was killed in a March 2018 crash in Mountain View, California. The lawsuit alleges Huang died because he believed Tesla's advertising about the safety of the Autopilot system and other features.

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