5-hour ENERGY drink makers fined $4.3 million (£3.2 million) for “false” advertising
A popular energy drink company has been fined around £3.2 million after they were found to have produced “false” advertising.
Living Essentials LLC, a company who manufactures a drink product called “5-hour ENERGY”, marketed themselves as the world’s number one selling energy shot where it provides the “bright, alert feeling you need to get through your day without making you feel wired up”.
Their website states that it’s still number one in the U.S. “by a wide margin – because it works”.
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Lloyds bank set to pay out £1 billion for customer charges
Leading U.K. bank, Lloyds Banking Group, has pledged to refund all fees they charged to customers between 2009 and 2016.
After discussions with the FCA, Lloyds agreed to refund fees they charged to customers who fell behind on their mortgage payments between 1st January 2009 and January 2016. Reportedly, Lloyds charged fees for arrears management and broken payments without checking with customers that the repayment plans were affordable, which is said to be the reason for the refunds.
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Major drug manufacturers and distributors suspected of colluding to inflate profits at consumers’ expense
Several drug manufacturers, suppliers and pharmacy benefit managers have reportedly been caught colluding to fix prices for insulin.
In what’s believed to be efforts to allegedly inflate profits, companies reportedly worked together to set consistently high prices for the drugs. This way, no matter where consumers purchased their insulin from, they’d be paying high prices. By price-fixing, no company undercuts the other by offering a cheaper price, which is anti-competitive behaviour that can be extremely harmful for competition and for the consumer.
These are the accusations being brought by those bringing a legal action.
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Novo Nordisk agrees to settlement for questionable sales tactics
Danish multinational pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk is one of the leading global manufacturers of medical drugs.
They stand accused of using questionable tactics to drive up sales.
Novo Nordisk reportedly took their marketing a step further by disguising salespeople as medical professionals and educators. The Novo Nordisk employees would apparently pretend to be experts in medicine and recommend the company’s own drugs like professors advertising their own textbooks to students. The drug maker is also accused of paying kickbacks to doctors and medical staff to encourage them to prescribe the company’s own medicines.
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Student nurses at the University of Derby told of possible blood contamination receive financial compensation with Group Action Lawyers
Our lawyers successfully helped former student nurses recover financial compensation for the University of Derby’s negligent actions that put them at risk of infection through blood contamination.
The cases were settled outside of court by our expert team of lawyers.
As soon as news broke of the scandal, we were on the case and offering our services to anyone affected. A number of individuals approached us for help and advice, and we took forward claims on a No Win, No Fee basis for individuals affected.
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Gilead HIV medication lawsuit reinstated
Gilead Sciences Inc, a research-based biopharmaceutical company, has recently experienced a set-back with the lawsuit filed in 2011 against them that they may have considered to have ended.
A federal appeals court has recently reinstated the lawsuit that was brought by two whistle-blowers alleging that Gilead defrauded and misled the government, as the company allegedly didn’t disclose that their HIV medicines were contaminated, which consequently allowed them to reportedly falsify data to win marketing approval for the medicine.
This false information reportedly led federal healthcare programmes to pay billions of dollars for contaminated medicine, but the case was initially dismissed by the California Court.
Now, it’s back…
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Who is to blame for Tesla car crash in Minnesota?
A 58-year-old driver of a Tesla car was involved in a car crash in Minnesota on the 17th July 2017. The high tech vehicle, produced by Elon Musk’s Tesla car company, is installed with ‘self-driving’ technology that’s designed to assist drivers in their journeys with automatic driving capabilities.
However, they’ve come under huge scrutiny after a number of incidents have led to crashes that have fuelled calls that the technology just isn’t ready yet; and certainly isn’t safe.
In this incident, police authorities reported that the driver had “engaged the self-driving mode” when it “suddenly accelerated, causing the car to leave the road and overturn”.
So, was this human error or technological error?
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Medtronic under greater scrutiny as more of its products run into problems
Medical device maker Medtronic have been making the headlines for all the wrong reasons lately. Priding itself as the “global leader in medical technology, services, and solutions”, Medtronic have been at the centre of a fair few recalls for defects and risks that have arisen from the use of their products.
In the latest issues, scrutiny has come from issues with their products and an alleged lack of warning for equipment incompatibility.
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Opioid lawsuits for overuse and addiction
Recently, we’ve seen a greater reliance on drugs from doctors, which include addictive painkillers like opioids. The addiction has been reported as a global epidemic, with the U.S. noting it as “the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history“.
Drug manufacturers and distributors have now found themselves in hot water as a result of the allegations.
At least 25 states in the U.S. have taken legal action against opioid manufacturers for the alleged unprecedented effect it has had on communities across America, and here in the U.K., we’re concerned we may be facing a similar epidemic.
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Depression and chronic pain relief drug, Duloxetine, recalled after failing tests
The drug Duloxetine, more commonly known as its brand name Cymbalta, is generally used to treat depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. It’s an active ‘serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor’, providing pain relief for patients with diabetes or sufferers from chronic or widespread pain.
The drug is commonly prescribed to people with arthritis and fibromyalgia. However, select batches of the Torrent Dutor Gastro-resistant Capsules have been recalled by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) because “out of specification results for dissolution were obtained during routine stability testing”.
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14,000 Medtronic ventilators recalled
Regulators have reportedly issued a recall for a number of medical ventilators manufactured by Medtronic.
The company’s New Port HY70 and HT70 Plus ventilators are being recalled amidst concerns that the devices may suddenly shutdown or reset. There have so far been 12 reported cases whereby a reset was suddenly initiated without warning. Thankfully, no patients have yet suffered an injury!
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The reported danger of Intersurgical’s BVM resuscitation device
A reported manufacturing fault of a medical device has caused a great deal of concern within the healthcare industry. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued a field safety notice to notify healthcare providers and users alike.
Due to a reported manufacturing fault, the Bag-Valve-Mask (BVM) manual resuscitation system could cause injury or even death as the valve may become stuck during storage, possibly resulting in the intended airflow not being delivered. Consequently, there may be a delay in the treatment.
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