Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Summer is the perfect time to experience the great outdoors, but you may want to use caution when you come in contact with nature’s creatures. It’s frightening enough to encounter dangerous snakes, spiders or scorpions while camping or hiking, but if you get bitten you know you can count on hospitals to inject antivenom into your veins to counter any ill effects. What you probably don’t know is that the supply of many life-saving antivenoms is running out and drug companies just don’t think it’s profitable enough to keep on producing it.

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Drugs are becoming a booming business in India and are expected to grow 13 percent this year alone to just over $24 billion. With tougher patent laws and a more mainstream focus in the global drug industry, India is slowly beginning emerge as a solid exporter of drugs. However, what most critics see in the Indian drug industry is not as much growth as it is quality issues.

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With the nation’s healthcare system groaning under epic pressure, you would think that the pharmaceutical giants would be a little more judicious in the way they promote their drugs and sell them to federal, state, and municipal government programs. Perhaps they will be, now that the United States Department of Justice has slapped Pfizer with a record $2.3 billion fine for defrauding the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

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Springfield, Massachusetts, Baystate Medical Center is accusing one of its prominent anesthesiologists of providing fictitious data about the after-surgery benefits from painkillers like Vioxx and Celebrex.

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The Wall Street Journal reported in its Health Blog on May 21 that the Federal Aviation Administration has banned the stop-smoking drug Chantix for pilots and air traffic controllers.

According to the report, Pfizer’s smoking-cessation drug Chantix came in for a bit more trouble as a research group cited reports of physical side effects associated with the drug. The FAA, which reviewed the report, barred pilots and air traffic controllers from taking the drug, the WSJ reports.

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