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Supreme Court Slaps Down Drug Companies - Now That?s Comedy!

By Joe Consumer

Last Friday, a Javelin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. news release on Business Wire announced that the U.S. Supreme Court had just ruled ?that Javelin?s acute pain products had been lawfully produced and marketed.?  Now the FBI?s involved because the whole thing was a hoax!  Clowning around with the U.S. Supreme Court - what could be more hilarious?

So forgive me if a couple of today?s Supreme Court decisions drew, at first, a skeptical laugh.  But I assure you. These are no joke.

First, the Court let stand the first federal verdict against Wyeth (now owned by Pfizer) over its hormone-replacement drug Prempro for causing breast cancer.  The Court rejected Pfizer?s appeal of a $2.7 million award to Donna Scroggin.  (You can read much more about Prempro?s sordid history here.)  Said her attorney Jim Morris, ?[t]he Supreme Court action ?validates our evidence that shows Wyeth hid the health risks of this drug and the drugs caused breast cancer in thousands of women.? We are looking forward to asking another jury to decide the extent of Wyeth?s wrongful conduct.??

Second, the Court refused to stop a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson brought by a whistleblower, ?a former sales representative who says the company gave doctors kickbacks for prescribing its Procrit anemia drug.?  The lawsuit says that J&J?s Ortho Biotech Products unit paid kickbacks that ?led to inflated reimbursements under the federal Medicare program for the elderly and disabled.?  

Those drug companies.  They are just a laugh-a-minute.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on June 21, 2010 (boomark / email).