A New York Supreme Court Judge denied on Monday the plaintiffs’ motion for certification of a personal injury lawsuit claiming harm, including addiction, caused as a result of using OxyContin pills, drugmaker Purdue Pharma said in press release on Thursday.
In Hurtado, et al. V. Purdue Pharma L.P., et al., Justice Stephen J. Maltese ruled that […]

Ford Motor Company said Thursday that it’s recalling nearly 800,000 trucks and sport utility vehicles to address under hood fires related to the cruise control switch.
The company said it would notify owners of nearly 792,000 F-150s, Expeditions and Navigators from the 2000 model year and 2001 F-Series Supercrews made during the same time period.
Initially, […]

Plavix, a heart and stroke drug co-promoted by Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb, can cause more ulsers than aspirin used in combination with a heartburn pill, according to a study published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine found.
However, current Food and Drug Administration guidelines recommend Plavix for patients who have major gastrointestinal intolerance (GI) […]

A consumer group petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to remove the arthritis drugs Celebrex and Bextra from the market. The group claims that both painkillers from Pfizer Inc. increase the risk of heart attacks in patients.
Celebrex and Bextra are part of the same family of drugs called COX-2 inhibitors as Vioxx, which was pulled […]

The Supreme Court of Mississippi on Thursday overturned a $22.5 million verdict against 3M Company in an asbestos-related case involving two of its repiratory products, the company said in a press release.
The company said the repirators did not contain asbestos and were not designed for asbestos protection.
The case was originally filed in April 2000 and […]

General Motors, the world’s largest automaker, paid a civil penalty of $1 million to settle charges that it failed to provide timely notification of the existence of a safety-related defect, according to documents made public Wednesday.
The problem involved windshield wiper failure in 581,344 Trailblazers, Bravadas, Envoys and Isuzu Ascenders manufactured in 2002 and 2003.
The National […]

Kraft Foods Inc. said Monday that it will stop advertising many of its less nutritional products on television, radio and print media viewed primarily by children ages 6 to 11-year-olds.
This includes regular Kool-Aid beverages, Oreo and Chips Ahoy! cookies, several Post children’s cereals, and many varieties of Lunchables lunch combinations, Kraft said in a statement.
“We’re […]

Two executives of a Florida-based investment company pleaded guilty to state criminal charges in connection with the ongoing investigation of illegal trading practices in the mutual fund industry, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Tuesday.
In a related development, the Securities & Exchange Commission announced a $750,000 civil settlement against the brokers.
According to the attorney […]

Consumers who purchased salvaged vehicles may be eligible for payments in coming months under a $40 million multisate settlement with State Farm Mutual Insurance Company.
State Farm, after an internal review, determined that in some cases it had failed to “brand” the title of a vehicle that the company acquired following an accident in which the […]

A senior executive of Marsh & McLennan Companies pleaded guilty to criminal charges in connection with an ongoing investigation of fraud and bid rigging in the insurance industry, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitizer said last week.
In his guilty plea, Robert Stearns, a senior vice president at the Marsh, admitted that he instructed insurance companies […]