June 26th, 2009 Roberts & Roberts
FDA seizes generic drugs at Michigan facilities due to manufacturing deficiencies.
Bloomberg News (6/26, Olmos) reports, “Generic drugs made by Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd. were seized by US authorities, who cited violations of manufacturing standards.” The FDA said drugs “and raw ingredients for pain, heart ailment, and psychiatric medications were confiscated today at three Caraco facilities in Michigan to prevent the Detroit-based company from distributing its products until the manufacturing deficiencies are corrected.” The agency also said the “drug seizure could lead to shortages of one pill, choline magnesium trisalicylate, a generic pain-relief medication.” Deborah Autor, director of the Office of Compliance at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said inspectors who saw the facilities in May 2009 “found ’serious violations’ of manufacturing standards and ’serious deficiencies’ in quality control.”
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June 22nd, 2009 Roberts & Roberts
Resistant staph bacteria is being transmitted between animals and humans, study finds.
By Robert Preidt
MONDAY, June 22 (HealthDay News)—Transmission of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections between pets and humans are increasing, with the most common being infections of the skin, soft-tissue and surgical infections, say researchers who conducted a review of clinical evidence.
“Pet owners are often unaware of the potential for transmission of life-threatening pathogens from their canine and feline companions,” Dr. Richard Oehler, of the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa, and colleagues wrote in the July issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Dog and cat bites account for about 1 percent of emergency department visits each year in the United States and Europe. Severe infections occur in about 20 percent of all cases and are caused by bacteria from the animal’s mouth, plus possibly other bacteria from the human patient’s skin, the study authors pointed out.
Sepsis, a bloodstream infection, can be a severe complication of bite wounds infected with MRSA and a number of other types of bacteria, noted Oehler and colleagues.
Increasing prevalence of community-acquired MRSA in humans has been accompanied by MRSA colonization in domestic animals such as dogs, cats and horses. This makes the animals potential reservoirs of MRSA infection. And MRSA-related skin infections in pets, such as simple dermatitis, can easily spread to humans, according to the article.
Treatment of MRSA infections in pets is similar to that used in humans, said the researchers, who added that much more research needs to be done on MRSA pet-human infections.
“Bite injuries are a major cause of injury in the USA and Europe each year, particularly in children. Bites to the hands, forearms, neck and head have the potential for the highest morbidity,” the study authors conclude. “Health-care providers are at the forefront of protecting the vital relationships between people and their pets. Clinicians must continue to promote loving pet ownership, take an adequate pet history, and be aware that associated diseases are preventable via recognition, education, and simple precautions.”
The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has more about MRSA.
(original story can be found http://health.msn.com/health-topics/vaccinations/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100240768>1=31049
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June 3rd, 2009 Roberts & Roberts
By Thomas F. Schaller
June 2, 2009
I last wrote about America’s abysmal savings rate. Now, the flip side: our even more crippling credit card debt situation.
According to a recent study, in 2008 more than 91 million U.S. households, or 78 percent, held at least one credit card, with an average of 5.4 cards per household. Total credit debt as of December 2008 is $973 billion, with a household average of $8,329.
Almost 90 percent of that outstanding debt is held by 10 creditors; Chase, Bank of America, Citi, American Express and Capital One (the company with those zany commercials) are, in order, the top five creditors.
All of this borrowing and lending would be of little concern if American cardholders were borrowing money in the short term and paying those debts off immediately or within a few months with some interest. In fact, given that almost no merchants offer lower prices for paying cash (I occasionally see a gas station that still does), in some ways it makes more sense to use a credit card: Cash is much harder to recover if lost or stolen, and taking cash out from ATMs can incur fees.
Unfortunately, too many Americans use credit cards to finance their purchases over the longer term, at which point debts become punitive, even paralyzing. Many card holders quickly find themselves in a debt spiral wherein they can never pay back the principal - exactly what credit card companies want, explains Tom Geoghegan in recent essay for Harper’s magazine.
Mr. Geoghegan notes that annual percentage rates were more or less capped by states at around 9 percent until the Supreme Court ruled in 1978 that banks could lend at the rate allowable in the state where the bank is located, not where the creditor lives. “Now we’re all shoveling billions into the banks, and there’s no way working people who can’t get a raise will ever climb out of debt,” writes Mr. Geoghegan.
Credit card companies can be ruthless, too. A recent Pew Charitable Trusts survey of such companies revealed that 93 percent allow issuers to raise the interest rate at any time by simply changing the account agreement; 87 percent allow them to impose penalties even if the borrower is not 30 days or more overdue; and 72 percent offer promotional rates that can be revoked after a single late payment.
Last month, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed a new law that would provide greater transparency for credit card holders and new restrictions on issuers. Among the provisions: Credit card companies can no longer change the teaser APR rates they use to lure customers within the first six months; cardholder payments must be 60 days late before companies can assess penalties; creditors must alert cardholders 45 days in advance of any rate changes, fees or finance charges; and cardholders whose rates are increased as a result of late payments must have their original rate restored after six consecutive months of on-time payments.
Overall, these changes should eliminate some of the predatory aspects and reduce the informational asymmetries that favor creditors over consumers. Hopefully, consumers will make more discriminating choices about using credit and, once burned, will be twice shy about sliding that card to buy non-essential items.
But maybe not. A recent study by University of Maryland economists Haiyan Shui and Lawrence Ausubel found that consumers, lured by attractive teaser rates, often made poor choices despite clear, preferable alternatives. “The problem isn’t in the availability of information [but] the processing of the information,” Mr. Ausubel recently told Time magazine. And, whatever might be said about predatory profiteering of credit card companies, every dollar of the nearly $1 trillion in current debts started with a purchase made by a consumer.
Using plastic more wisely will help, but using it less often is crucial.
Thomas F. Schaller teaches political science at UMBC. His column appears regularly in The Baltimore Sun. His e-mail is schaller67@gmail.com.
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June 3rd, 2009 Roberts & Roberts
The Hill (6/3, Swanson) reports, “Consumer groups and trial lawyers are crying foul over the Obama administration’s bankruptcy plans for General Motors and Chrysler” because “those plans would extinguish all ongoing auto accident claims that blame a death or serious injury on a defective GM or Chrysler vehicle.” According to Clarence Dilow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, “the plans are unusual in that they would prevent anyone from bringing a future liability claim against GM or Chrysler if a car already purchased from either company is defective and results in an accident causing death or serious injury.” Also, he added, “it was…unusual for no money to be set aside for liability claims.”
On the Wheels blog on the New York Times website (6/3) Christopher Jensen writes, “In approving the sale of most of Chrysler’s assets to a new company, run by Fiat, over the weekend, Judge Arthur J. Gonzalez also granted the automaker’s request that the new company not be held liable for future product-liability problems involving current owners” which “means people who own a Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep have lost their right to sue if they are injured by a safety defect.” He says that consumer groups are concerned that “people who already have been injured in accidents and have filed suits against Chrysler, asserting that a vehicle had a safety defect” will not get any money from the carmaker even if they “win in court.”
ClickonDetroit (6/3) also covers the story and reports, “It’s like slamming the courthouse door in the victim’s face.” Consumer groups want the “new Chrysler” to “at least create a victim’s fund.”
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