First Federal Vioxx Trial Ends in Hung Jury
The first federal lawsuit over the once-popular painkiller Vioxx ended in a mistrial Monday.
Merck & Co. emerged from its third Vioxx trial with a hung jury when the panel in Houston failed, in 18 hours of deliberations over three days, to side with the drug maker or the widow of a 53-year-old Florida man who died after taking Vioxx for about a month, the Associated Press reported.
The jury resumed what was to be its fourth day of deliberations Monday, but within about 20 minutes, U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon called the jurors in and reminded them they had agreed to reach a verdict in a "reasonable time."
"It has now been a reasonable time. We cannot get a verdict," Fallon said, declaring a mistrial. Federal litigation requires a unanimous verdict.
The panel was at odds over whether Merck was liable in Richard "Dicky" Irvin's 2001 death and whether the company failed to issue safety warnings that the drug could have serious cardiovascular repercussions.
The trial's outcome leaves Merck with a 1-and-1 record in state trials and an undecided in the first of four federal trials overseen by Fallon. The company faces about 7,000 pending state and federal lawsuits and its liability has been estimated at up to $50 billion.
Merck pulled the painkiller from the market in September 2004 after a long-term study showed it could double the risk of a heart attack or stroke if taken for 18 months or longer.
The crux of the federal case was whether Vioxx could be dangerous with short-term use, the AP reported.
Merck argued that Vioxx was not a factor in Irvin's death because he took the drug for a few weeks. The company blamed his death on clogged arteries and a blood clot that led to the heart attack.
Of the 21 witnesses who testified in the case, four testified on Merck's behalf, and none of those were cardiologists. The plaintiff's witnesses included Dr. Eric Topol, chairman of the cardiovascular medicine department of the Cleveland Clinic and a vocal critic of Vioxx, who said the drug can cause heart attacks any time after a patient begins taking it.
Just after the case went to the jury Thursday, the New England Journal of Medicine released an editorial charging that the study authors of a report on a 2000 Merck-funded Vioxx trial failed to disclose heart attacks suffered by three patients.
Night Work Increases Premature Labor Risk
Pregnant women who work nights have up to a 50 percent increased risk of premature birth, says a University of North Carolina study of 1,900 working women.
The study found that standing for long stretches of time and lifting heavy objects did not increase the risk of premature birth. However, working nights during the first trimester of pregnancy was associated with double the risk of premature birth, BBC News reported.
This may be due to the fact that working at night disrupts normal nighttime womb activity, the researchers suggested. The findings appear in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.
"The findings from our study are based on a small sample size and need to be interpreted with caution," lead researcher Dr. Lisa Pompeii told BBC News.
"However, these findings, along with a handful of other studies that have observed a modest elevation in the risk of preterm delivery among women who work at night and/or shift work during pregnancy, warrants the need for further exploration of the biological effects of shift work on uterine activity during pregnancy," she said.
Abortion Can Cause Long-Term Mental Distress: Study
Anxiety, guilt and shame can affect women for at least five years after they have an abortion, says a Norwegian study in the journal BMC Medicine.
The study included 80 women who had an abortion and 40 women who suffered a miscarriage. The women were interviewed at 10 days, six months, two years and five years after the event, The Scotsman reported.
Women who had a miscarriage suffered more mental distress up to six months after the event, compared with women who had an abortion. However, women who had an abortion experienced more mental distress in the longer term, the study found.
The findings indicate that women in both situations should be given information about the psychological effects of losing a baby, the University of Oslo researchers said.
Two New Bird Flu Outbreaks in Romania
Romania has confirmed new bird flu outbreaks in two new villages in the eastern district of Buzau, but did not say how many cases there were in the villages.
Several birds were found dead in the villages over the past few days, and tests confirmed the presence of H5 avian flu virus in the villages, Agence France Presse reported. The villages have been quarantined and officials have ordered the slaughter of hundreds of birds.
In related news, Japan announced that it will provide $135 million to help Southeast Asian countries combat the spread of bird flu and will host an international conference on the issue in January, AFP reported.
Also on Monday, Swiss drug maker Roche said it had reached a sublicensing agreement with the Shanghai Pharmaceutical group to produce the Tamiflu anti-influenza drug in China, AFP reported.
More Hospitals Reusing Medical Devices to Save Money
A growing number of U.S. hospitals are cutting costs by reusing medical devices that are meant to be used only once, according to a special report in the Sunday edition of the Washington Post.
The institutions are not required to inform patients when they use a reconditioned device during surgery, and it is not uncommon for the doctor performing the surgery to be unaware of that fact, the Post reported. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversees this practice, but the agency only last year began requiring that hospitals report a malfunctioning device that had been reprocessed.
More companies are producing one-time use medical devices because they don't have to be built to last long, legal liability drops after a first use, and they are guaranteed refill orders from hospitals, the Post reported. In response, many hospitals are now reprocessing these devices because they have resterilizing measures already in place and they regard the one-time designation as a ploy by the companies to force them to buy more devices, the Post report said.
Although the Post reported that exact numbers were almost impossible to amass, the article stated that hospitals in all 50 states and the District are believed to reprocess at least some single-use devices.
Food Fact:
Coffee on the dark side?
If p.m. coffee leaves you too perky to sleep, try cutting it off earlier rather than cutting it out completely. Coffee's stimulatory effects usually take 6 - 8 hours to wear off, so consider your bedtime when you reach for an afternoon or evening cup. The effects -- it can exacerbate insomnia, nervousness, anxiety and even panic attacks -- may last longer in women taking oral contraceptives and in older people. But coffee isn't a demon, either. Short-term studies have found that a cup's worth -- 100mg -- can increase self-confidence, energy and motivation to work.
Fitness Tip of the day:
Make exercise fun.
Revving up your workout routine can be as easy as making a list. When beginning a new exercise program, jot down your favorite everyday activities, and incorporate them into your fitness plan. If you enjoy walking with your dog, schedule longer walks along with more traditional forms of exercise such as weight training, flexibility training and cardiovascular programming.
FAQ of the day:
What's the healthiest way to handle garlic and onions?
The way you handle garlic and onions affects their health-protective compounds. The more you cut, chop, smash or otherwise disturb raw onions or garlic, the more compounds they will release. If you're going to cook garlic, for example, it's a good idea to smash or chop it about 10 minutes before.
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