Attorney Daily - Your source for the most important legal news

Thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina finally have some good news to celebrate: A U.S. District Court judge ruled yesterday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) must resume making housing-relief payments to those displaced by the disaster. In handing down his decision, Judge Richard Leon delivered a sharp rebuke to FEMA and the Bush Administration, calling FEMA’s application process “Kafkaesque” and even unconstitutional. Earlier this week, a Louisiana judge ruled that flood victims may be eligible for further compensation from insurers than originally delegated.

In his ruling against FEMA, Judge Leon, who was appointed by President Bush, ordered the agency to immediately restore its short-term housing-relief benefits for evacuees, including the benefits they would have received over the past three months. It also requires FEMA to send out detailed, clearly worded letters of explanation with “more fulsome instructions” to those whose benefits are being denied. Previous FEMA notices were “unconstitutionally vague and uninformative,” according to Leon. In addition, FEMA must institute a fair and easy-to-understand appeals process for the victims.
(more…)

The popular antiviral drug Tamiflu is under fire again, this time from Health Canada. The Canadian government issued a new safety advisory today, warning consumers that Tamiflu may be linked to hallucinations and abnormal behavior, including self harm. In conjunction with the new warning, Health Canada is asking manufacturer Hoffmann-La Roche to update its prescription information to reflect these risks.

Health Canada was spurred to action by reports coming from overseas, primarily Japan, of teenagers and children who have suffered adverse psychiatric effects while taking Tamiflu. According to Health Canada, as of November 11 “there have been 84 reports of adverse events occurring in Canadian patients using Tamiflu, including 10 which reported a fatal outcome. A causal relationship has not been confirmed in these cases. There have been seven Canadian reports of psychiatric adverse events, suspected by those reporting the events, due to Tamiflu, most involving elderly patients. There have been no Canadian reports of abnormal behavior or deaths involving children.”
(more…)

In conjunction with drug maker Hoffmann-LaRoche, Health Canada has issued new safety information regarding Rituxan, which is used in the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) and rheumatoid arthritis. According to the company, post-market and clinical studies have revealed reports of serious side effects, including abdominal pain, bowel obstruction, and perforation, in Rituxan patients. Most of the reports, including all related fatalities, are from NHL patients who combined chemotherapy with their Rituxan regimen.

In a letter sent earlier this month to health-care professionals, Hoffmann-LaRoche and Health Canada noted that “the pharmacovigilance database for Rituxan indicates that 47 cases of bowel obstruction (9 deaths) and 37 cases of gastrointestinal perforation (4 deaths) have been reported in Rituxan patients, based on an approximately 730,000 cumulative patient exposure.”
(more…)