Google Pays $500 Million in Settlement for Online Pharmaceutical Ads

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Kay Van Wey

Prescription drug prices in the United States are through the roof.  In 2005, we spent an estimated $251.8 billion on prescription drugs alone.  This year, prescription drug sales are expected to reach $310 billion.

 
If you are lucky enough to have health insurance, then some of your costs associated with filling a prescription are paid.  But if you are one of the more than 50 million people who are uninsured in this country, you are forced to pay for prescriptions at full price.
 
In the last few years, people have turned to Internet pharmacies to get their prescriptions for a reduced price.  But under U.S. law, foreign pharmacies cannot legally ship prescription drugs to consumers in the United States if they are not first approved by the FDA.  The worry is that because these drugs are not approved by the FDA, they are potentially dangerous to consumers.
 
Google, Inc. learned this lesson the hard way when it sold advertisements to Canadian pharmacies that were illegally selling prescription drugs to American consumers.  Rather than face criminal prosecution for allegedly improperly profiting from these advertisements, Google agreed to pay the U.S. government $500 million in a settlement.
 
Sales of online advertisements for health care services and products generate nearly $1.3 billion each year.  Google’s ad sales helped the company generate $39 billion in cash by the end of June 2011.
 
Critics worry that this slap on the wrist for Google will not do much to help consumers who have their health compromised by these illegally imported prescription drugs.  And while U.S. officials continue to track down companies that endanger the health of U.S. citizens, America cannot seem to escape its growing prescription pill problem.
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FDA Warns that Actos May Cause Bladder Cancer

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Kay Van Wey

Dallas dangerous drug attorney Kay L. Van Wey explains the FDA's most recent warning about diabetes drug Actos

According to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), as many as a third of Americans could have diabetes by the year 2050.  This estimate is based on the fact that people are living longer and are gaining more weight.
 
Strides have been made in combating diabetes, but newer prescription drugs to help patients deal with Type 2 diabetes have had dangerous side effects.
 
In 2010, the popular diabetes drug Avandia was sharply restricted by the FDA when researchers found that it caused heart attacks and strokes.  With Avandia off the market in Europe and restricted in the United States, Actos became the most popularly prescribed diabetes drug.
 
Between January 2010 and October 2010, an estimated 2.3 million patients filled prescriptions for products that contained pioglitazone, the main ingredient found in Actos.
 
But recently, the FDA has found that Actos has its own problems.  In a study conducted by the FDA, patients taking Actos for one year or longer had a 40 percent increased risk of developing bladder cancer.  This finding was enough for the FDA to issue a warning to doctors not to prescribe Actos to patients with active bladder cancer and to use caution in prescribing to patients with a prior history of bladder cancer.
 
Another study conducted in France has also suggested that patients have an increased risk of developing bladder cancer while taking Actos.
 
If you have been taking Actos for one year or longer, the FDA recommends that you continue taking the drug until you can talk with your doctor about potential alternative treatment options.
 
While on Actos, you should consult your doctor if you experience blood or red-colored urine, an urgent need to urinate or pain urinating, or pain in the back or lower abdomen.
 
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What You Should Know about Prescription Drug Addiction

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Kay Van Wey

pills Pictures, Images and Photos

Each year, millions of Americans turn to prescription painkillers to help ease their pain.  But these painkillers may be doing some patients more harm than good.

Emergency rooms across the United States are seeing an increase in the number of prescription drug overdoses.  In fact, emergency room visits due to overdoses have alarmingly doubled over a five year period to 1.2 million.
 
Part of the problem is that doctors are not properly trained on how to manage pain and are often pressured by major pharmaceutical companies to give patients unnecessary drugs.  Last year, physicians wrote more than 200 million prescriptions for highly addictive pain medications.  Yet, some question the effectiveness of these painkillers, especially for patients suffering with chronic pain. 
 
As Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), puts it, “physicians are the nation’s pushers.”  And patients trust that the drugs their doctors are prescribing them are safe, without ever giving much thought as to whether they may become addicted to the drugs.
 
Often, people who become addicted to prescription painkillers are labeled morally weak and are considered menaces to society.  These stereotypes are simply not true.
 
Addiction is a brain disease that can be treated.  In some people, prescription drugs can have such a profound effect that they change the way in which the brain processes judgment, decision making, memory, learning, and control.  These drugs activate dopamine, a chemical that regulates the reward system in our brains, motivating future behavior.
 
While scientists have not yet been able to determine who will become addicted to a certain prescription, they have been able to lessen the addictive properties of certain pain relievers.
 
To learn more about addiction and the addition epidemic in the United States, read my article entitled “America’s Growing Addiction.”
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Florida Attempts to Crack Down on Pill Mills

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Kay Van Wey

Dallas dangerous drug attorney Kay Van Wey talks about pill mills

Known as the “Pill Mill Capital of the United States,” Florida has seen its fair share of problems associated with prescription drug abuse.  

But legislators are hoping to change the state’s bad reputation by implementing the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, which keeps track of when, where, to whom, and by whom a prescription containing a controlled substance is prescribed.

Florida is not the first state to implement a prescription drug database.  More than 30 states currently have these databases in place.
 
Under Florida’s database, doctors and pharmacists must register beginning October 1st and will have seven days to file information regarding prescriptions for certain drugs that contain controlled substances.  Doctors and pharmacists will be able to check a patient’s prescription history before writing or filling any prescriptions.  Lawmakers hope that this will prevent pharmacy-hopping and give doctors an outlet in which suspicious activity can be reported.
 
Currently, nearly seven Floridians a day overdose on prescription drugs.  And according to Florida’s Attorney General Pam Bondi, more people are dying from overdosing on prescription drugs than they are from overdosing on illegal drugs.  
 
In 2010, doctors in Florida bought 89 percent of all Oxycodone sold in the United States.  That same year, the state had 1000 pain clinics up and running, but tougher laws have shut down 400 of them within the past year. And so far, 80 doctors have had their licenses suspended for prescribing large numbers of pills to patients without clear medical needs.  A doctor in Palm Beach County has even been charged with murder for prescribing a patient drugs on which he later overdosed and died.
 
As of now, the program must rely on private contributions and federal grants to continue running through June 30, 2012. The legislature is not allowing the program to accept donations from pharmaceutical companies in general, and particularly Purdue Pharma, the maker of the most widely abused prescription painkiller, OxyContin, which offered the program a donation of $1 million.
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