Word: dalkon
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...products, including Robitussin cough syrup, Chap Stick lip balm and Sergeant's flea and tick collars, last year generated record sales of $632 million. But the 119-year-old pharmaceutical firm is now facing financial ruin because of a $3 item it has not sold in a decade: the Dalkon Shield intrauterine birth control device. Deluged by more than 12,000 lawsuits charging that the Dalkon Shield was responsible for countless serious illnesses and at least 20 deaths among the women who used it, Robins last week filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. The move could...
...Dalkon Shield case may turn out to be the worst liability nightmare that a U.S. drugmaker has suffered. The focus of the furor is a nickel-size plastic device that looks like a shield with spikes around the edges. It was developed in 1968 by Hugh Davis, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Johns Hopkins University, and Irwin Lerner, an engineer. In 1970 they sold the rights to the invention to Robins, which agreed to pay royalties on future sales and $750,000 in cash. Like other intrauterine devices, the Dalkon Shield was designed to be inserted inside...
...design of the Dalkon Shield was apparently flawed. For one thing, it had a nylon tail that hung through the opening of the uterus so that a doctor could periodically check that the device was still in place. The problem with the tail, some investigators believe, is that it soaked up bacteria from the vagina and allowed the microbes to pass into the uterus. That often caused infection, which sometimes resulted in sterility. In some cases, women became pregnant despite the IUD and suffered miscarriages because of infection. In 1974 Robins suspended sales of the device after receiving evidence that...
Lawyers for the victims contend that Robins knew the Dalkon Shield could be dangerous long before the company stopped selling it. They also complain that Robins refused to alert women who were still wearing the device to have it removed. It was not until last year that the company finally ran full-page newspaper and magazine ads that warned women of the Dalkon Shield's risks and offered to pay the doctor's fee for having it taken out. To this day, though, Robins maintains that the Dalkon Shield is just as safe as any other IUD when properly inserted...
...that a state may not ban nondeceptive advertisements even when the attorney is soliciting clients with very specific legal problems. Columbus Lawyer Philip Zauderer had been reprimanded by the Ohio Supreme Court for placing a series of modest newspaper ads in 1982 that showed a line drawing of the Dalkon Shield IUD. Zauderer's text said the device was alleged to have caused injuries and other health problems for women and suggested that victims could still sue, even though the device had been off the market for years. Zauderer eventually filed lawsuits for 106 women who read...