Four female financial consultants filed a national class action lawsuit Thursday in federal court in San Francisco, charging sex discrimination at Smith Barney, the retail brokerage arm of Citigroup, which is the nation’s largest financial institution.
The lawsuit, Fassbender Amochaev v. Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., d/b/a Smith Barney, Case No. C051-298 (PJH) (N.D. Cal.), charges that […]

Attorneys representing uninsured and some under-insured patients said they have reached a proposed nationwide settlement with Tenet Healthcare Corp. Oringally filed in December 2002, the lawsuit claimed that patients not covered by insurance plans were charged excessive prices for prescription drugs and other medical products and services at 114 hospitals owned and operated by Tenet […]

ABB said Monday that it has reached an agreement to reorganize Combustion Engineering (CE) and ABB Lummus Global to resolve the asbestos claims against both companies.
The amended agreement requires ABB to contribute an additional $232 million to the trust fund that will pay all outstanding asbestos claims. This contribution will be derived from the sale […]

“Stop placing scientists with direct financial conflicts of interest” on Food and Drug Administration advisory committees, health advocates wrote in a letter to Acting FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford.
In the letter dated March 10, 2005, the groups said the agency failed to comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) when it assigned scientists with ties […]

A class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of purchasers of ChoicePoint Inc. common stock during the period between April 22, 2004 and March 3, 2005 (the “Class Period”), the law firm Lerach Coughlin announced March 10, 2005.
The suit comes after ChoicePoint disclosed in February that a secruity breach of its systems compromised personal […]

Personal informaiton on as many as 32,000 U.S. citizens - including names, addresses and Social Security numbers - may have been fraudulently accessed at LexisNexis’s recently acquired Seisint unit, the company’s corporate parent said last week.
Reed Elsevier said the incidents arose from the misappropriation of passwords and identification from legitimate customers.
The announcement comes after rival […]

A plan to reduce lead in drinking water was announced last week by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA said the Drinking Water Lead Reduction Plan will strengthen requirements for water utilities and states to test for and reduce lead in drinking water. The plan also calls for better monitoring and reporting of problems of […]

The law firm Schatz & Nobel, P.C. announced Thursday that it has filed a lawsuit against Biogen Idec Inc. on behalf of all persons who purchased securities of Biogen between February 18, 2004 and February 25, 2005, (the “Class Period”).
The lawsuit alleges that Biogen violated federal securities laws by issuing false and misleading information about […]

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday halted distribution of supplies of antidepressant Paxil CR and diabetes drug Avandamet because of concerns about manufacturing and quality.
FDA officials said manufacturing practices for the two drugs, made by British-based GlaxoSmithKline, failed to meet the standards laid out by FDA that ensure product safety, strength, quality and purity.
However, […]

Asian American patients taking Crestor, a cholesterol-lowering drug made by AstraZeneca, may be at greater risk of muscle injury because of Crestor than the general public, the Food and Drug Administration warned on Tuesday.
The announcement comes after AstraZeneca revised the package insert for Crestor, advising physicians to consider using lower starting doses of the drug […]