April, 2009Investment Firms Face Calif. Lawsuit Over Sale of Risky Auction-Rate Securities
Investment firms affiliated with Wells Fargo & Co. have been sued by California Attorney General Gerry Brown and accused of engaging in deceptive, misleading tactics in selling $1.5 billion worth of risky investments that were falsely billed as being just as safe as cash.
Continue →New Diabetes Drug Faces Delay, FDA Extends Review Period
The Food and Drug Administration has delayed making a decision on whether to approve a new Type 2 diabetes drug proposed by Bristol Myers-Squibb Co. and AstraZeneca PLC. The drug, saxagliptin, would be sold under the brand name Onglyza. Concerns about possible cardiovascular side effects of the drug prompted the FDA to delay its decision until July 2009. The agency had previously said it would decide Onglyza’s fate by next week. Onglyza belongs to a family of drugs called DPP-4 …
Continue →Stanford Financial’s Assets a Drop in the Bucket Toward Repaying Swindled Investors, Receiver Says
Allen Stanford, the Texas billionaire accused in an $8 billion Ponzi scheme, greatly overstated the value of real estate and other assets he owned, meaning there likely is not enough cash to repay investors who lost money in Stanford investments, a court-appointed receiver said today.
Continue →Cancer Drug Avastin Flunks Clinical Trial
Avastin, the Roche-Genentech cancer drug, has failed in a clinical trial designed to test the drug’s ability to substantially prolong the lives of people with early-stage cancer colon cancer, officials said. Avastin was developed by Genentech, the U.S. drug maker Swiss drug company Roche just paid $46.8 billion to take over. The drug’s poor showing in a recently completed trial of its effectiveness in fighting colon cancer is a blow to Avastin, which is a top seller for treatment of …
Continue →Unapproved Vitamin Supplement Linked to Deaths of 21 Polo Horses
A dietary supplement that is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is being blamed for the sudden deaths of 21 prized polo horses set to compete in the sport’s biggest championships in Florida. The drug, Biodyl, contains a form of selenium called sodium selenite, vitamin B12, and other minerals. It is made in France by a Georgia firm, Merial Ltd., and is frequently given to horses to help them bounce back from exhaustion. The FDA has refused …
Continue →NY Investment Advice Firm Charged With Fraudulent Sale of Bayou Hedge Funds
A New York-based investment advising firm and its principal owner have been charged with failing to do their homework on Bayou hedge funds before recommending that their clients purchase the investments, which later turned out to be frauds.
Continue →FDA Grants 17-Year-Olds Access to ‘Morning-After Pill’ Without Prescriptions
The Food and Drug Administration has approved selling a controversial emergency contraceptive to girls as young as 17 without prescriptions. The over-the-counter pill, called Plan B, had been available without prescription only to women age 18 and older. Girls age 17 and younger needed prescriptions to purchase the drug, which if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, can reduce a woman’s chances of becoming pregnant by as much as 89 percent. Judge Ordered FDA to Reconsider Restrictions The FDA …
Continue →Toaster Oven/Broilers Recalled by Haier America Due to Burn or Electrical Shock Hazard
Electrical connections in the toaster oven/broilers can become loose, posing electrical shock and burn hazards.
Continue →LexisNexis® Legal News Podcast for April 23, 2009
The U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a student strip search case, and, a dispute over AdWords and a keyword tool is revived by the 2nd Circuit. Hear these and other stories from LexisNexis® Mealey’s™ Data & Identity Security, Intellectual Property and Emerging Toxic Torts Reports. Copyright© 2009 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. For the latest litigation news headlines, visit www.lexisnexis.com/mealeys.
EPA Restores Stricter Reporting of Storage and Release of Toxic Chemicals; Obama Reversing Bush Policies
The Environmental Protection Agency, under the direction of President Barack Obama, will once again require thousands of facilities located across the United States that release toxic chemicals into the air, water, or land to fully disclose the nature and amounts of what they are releasing, officials said.
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