Current Events

TROY — He could no longer stand the agony. So Anthony Piscitella made a decision that might lead to financial ruin.

The first thing you should know about Piscitella is that he has a horribly bad back, a source of grinding pain. It's been that way for about a decade, since the former occupational therapist's attempt to move an obese patient went horribly and ridiculously awry.

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Autonomous braking and adaptive headlights provide the biggest benefits, study says

TUESDAY, July 3 (HealthDay News) -- Certain new crash-avoidance systems are effective in preventing car accidents, while others may do more harm than good, researchers say.
 

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Pharmaceutical drug maker GlaxoSmithKline will pay $3 billion and plead guilty to federal charges to resolve a slew of criminal and civil issues stemming from its use of kickbacks, mis-branding and other misconduct to market drugs such as Paxil, Wellbutrin and Advair, the U.S. government announced.

The agreement is the largest healthcare fraud settlement in history, spanning nearly every state, according to the Justice Department. It’s also the largest payment ever by a drug company.

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Roche Holding AG (ROG) must pay a total of $18 million in damages to two former users of its Accutane acne drug who blamed the medicine for their bowel disease, a New Jersey jury ruled.

Jurors in state court in Atlantic City deliberated about six hours today before that finding officials of Basel, Switzerland-based Roche failed to properly warn Kathleen Rossitto and Riley Wilkinson that Accutane could cause inflammatory bowel disease. Rossitto and Wilkinson were each awarded $9 million in compensatory damages. At the same time, the panel rejected claims by two other former users of the drug.

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Schumer says painkiller abuse by mothers is the same kind of scourge as the problem of crack babies and society risks doing 'too little, too late'

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The long, nagging problem of reports of unintended acceleration and sticky pedals just won't go away for Toyota Motor Corp.

The Japanese automaker on Friday expanded its 2009 recall of vehicles for pedal entrapment to include 154,000 model year 2010 RX 350 and RX 450h (hybrid) SUVs from its Lexus luxury line, the first new recall for the issue since early 2011.

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U.S. health regulators censured Covidien Plc for failing to promptly address complaints related to deaths and serious injuries linked to its devices used in thoracic surgery.

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Watchdog group Public Citizen urged U.S. regulators on Tuesday not to approve Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc's experimental diet pill lorcaserin, citing concerns it could increase patients' risk of heart valve damage.

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Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) (JNJ), the biggest health-care products maker, continued to sell a vaginal mesh implant for nine months after U.S. regulators told the company to stop marketing the device, according to court records.

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Metal-on-metal hip implants made by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Zimmer Holding Inc. (ZMH) need more consistent testing to help lower high failure rates that lead to risky replacement surgeries, a report by regulators said.

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Malpractice claims dipped dramatically among Massachusetts physicians after they began using electronic medical records, according to new research, although it's not clear whether the record-keeping was connected to the decline in claims.

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