Product Liability Attorney Blog

Hundreds of deaths last year were linked to tainted batches of heparin. Now, new standards for testing the blood thinner are scheduled to go into effect, Bloomberg News reports.

The nonprofit health group, U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention, which is responsible for setting standards for the quality, purity, strength and consistency of medicines, unveiled a plan that would include three identification tests and screening for organic impurities beginning Aug. 1.

In a news release, Roger L. Williams MD, UPC’s chief executive officer, stated:

“The tragedies involving heparin and glycerin demonstrate the shortcomings of 20th century safety nets in a 21st century global manufacturing supply chain. The reality is that with the decentralized, complex and global nature of today’s manufacturing environment, it is too easy for an unscrupulous supplier—driven by economic or even more frightening motives—to add an ingredient to a drug product that shouldn’t be there, putting us all at risk.

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Last week’s finding that Bernard Madoff didn’t trade any securities for more than ten years lends support to the claims that he could not have carried out the largest Ponzi scheme in history all alone, Bloomberg News reports.

Late last year, Madoff told federal investigators that he was solely responsible for the $50 billion securities fraud scam. But that seems unlikely. According to the bankruptcy trustee liquidating Madoff’s securities firm, it now appears there were no trades for at least a decade. At the same time, the firm sent client statements showing trading activity and market prices.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Columbia University Law School professor John Coffee noted:

“Someone had to creatively imagine what to tell all those clients.”

In addition to employees of the securities firm, Coffee indicated that feeder fund managers may also find them exposed to criminal charges.

“If prosecutors can show a kickback or any kind of undisclosed payments to feeder funds, then it will be much simpler for private investors to sue those feeder funds and it can support indictment under mail and wire fraud statutes.”

Continue reading " Madoff Must Have Had Help " »