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Medico-Legal
Researcher wants court to throw out J&J lawsuit over cancer findings
A medical researcher has asked a court to toss out a lawsuit that Johnson & Johnson filed against her over her 2019 study on the...
Philips coughs up $479m in apnoea device settlement
Philips Respironics, the maker of CPAP sleep apnoea machines, will pay $479m to settle some claims that its devices spewed carcinogenic foam and gas...
MEC's HPCSA hearing moved to 2024
The disciplinary hearing by the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) involving Limpopo MEC for Health Dr Phophi Ramathuba has been postponed again, this...
I'm too old to stand trial, says fraud accused doctor (85)
An 85-year-old doctor, charged with issuing a fake death certificate in 2020 so a Durban man’s girlfriend could fraudulently claim R6.5m in life cover,...
Fired SAHPRA staffer linked to illegal medical cannabis licences
A former employee of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), who has continued to issue medical cannabis licences despite being fired for...
British women sue Bayer over contraceptive coil
German pharmaceutical giant Bayer has said it would defend itself “vigorously” after 200 women in the UK – who claim they were left in...
US doctors charged for anti-vax actions sue regulator
Four doctors threatened with disciplinary action by Washington’s medical regulator over spreading Covid-19 misinformation want a court to strip the state’s Medical Commission of...
Menopausal worker wins payout
An insurance company in the UK has been ordered to pay a former employee almost £65 000 after failing “to make reasonable adjustments” when...
3M pays $6bn for faulty earplugs
Multinational manufacturing company 3M has agreed to pay $6bn to resolve roughly 300 000 lawsuits, alleging it supplied faulty combat earplugs to the US...
Lawyers probed over millions due to disabled children
A total of 14 lawyers are now being investigated by the Legal Practice Council (LPC) over multimillion-rand settlements due to children left severely disabled...
Britons launch lawsuits against AstraZeneca for Covid jab
Two London lawsuits have been filed against Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca, including one from the husband of a woman who died after receiving its Covid-19...
Family sues anti-vax body, doctor, over hydroxychloroquine death
The family of a US man who died in 2022 after taking hydroxychloroquine, prescribed by a physician with the controversial anti-vaccine group America’s Frontline...
Poison sales tied to 88 suspected UK suicides
A Canadian man arrested earlier this year, and accused of assisting suicide, is suspected to be linked to the deaths of dozens of people...
Judge orders Health Department to disclose vaccine contract data
The National Department of Health has been ordered by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to provide all details of the Covid-19 vaccines contracts it...
Killer nurse to spend life in prison for baby murders
Britain’s serial killer nurse Lucy Letby will never be released from prison after a judge sentenced her this week to a rare whole-life term...
Ex-Northern Cape Health HoD fined for irregular R13m lease deal
The former acting HoD of Health in the Northern Cape, who signed three lease agreements worth more than R13m without following proper procurement channels,...
Catholic Church launches lawsuit for coal miners
The Catholic Church in South Africa has filed a class action lawsuit against leading mining companies on behalf of coal miners with lung disease,...
Doctor charged with tax fraud gets bail
An East London doctor, arrested by the Hawks in a joint operation with SARS and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), was granted R10 000...
Bail for Eastern Cape Health staff with alleged bogus qualifications
Six Eastern Cape Health officials, facing charges of fraud, forgery and uttering and who were arrested on suspicion of faking the qualifications that earned...
Parents sue after baby decapitated during birth
An American couple is suing an obstetrician and a hospital after their baby died in a “nightmare” birth, alleging a cover-up after their son...
US court upholds abortion pill access restrictions
In America’s ongoing saga of the abortion pill mifepristone, an appeals court last week ruled to limit access to the drug, returning to regulations...
UK judge slams greedy lawyers acting for vaginal mesh claimants
A British judge has slashed the costs of a law firm acting for hundreds of women claiming to have been harmed by vaginal mesh...
Pharmacists can now prescribe HIV/TB meds, judge rules
Specially trained pharmacists will now be allowed to manage and prescribe medicine to patients with HIV and/or tuberculosis, after the judicial green light from...
Lawyers for ex-Health boss oppose evidence in Gupta-linked case
Lawyers for former North West Health Department boss Dr Andrew Lekalakala – in the Gupta-linked fraud case – have opposed evidence brought before the...
Dickason guilty of murders as jury rejects post-partum depression defence
South African doctor Lauren Dickason was yesterday found guilty of murdering her three children in New Zealand in a trial that made headlines around...
BHF back in court over 'irrational' blocking of low-cost medical options
The Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) says the Health Minister should face possible jail time for defying a July court order to produce documents...
Pharmacist sues ‘bullying’ medical schemes and CMS for 'discrimination'
An independent black pharmacist is taking various medical schemes and the Council for Medical Schemes to the Equality Court, accusing them of discrimination and...
Two diabetes drug firms sued over ‘stomach paralysis’ claim
Pharmaceutical giants Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are being sued for failing to adequately warn patients about the possible risk of severe stomach problems...
Murders, suicide would be a 'happy ending’, believed Dickason
The final witness in the murder trial of South African doctor Lauren Dickason told the High Court in New Zealand this week that she...
Meds mix-up blamed for US patient’s hospital death
Despite a lethal medication mix-up causing the death last year of an 81-year-old man in the US, who died 48 hours after being given...
Legal clash between Pfizer and GSK over RSV shot
British biopharmaceutical giant GSK has sued Pfizer in a US court, alleging that the latter’s respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine Abrysvo violates GSK’s patent rights in its...
HPCSA disciplinaries: negligence, fraud and sexual impropriety
Another suspension for oft-suspended general practitioner, a paramedic holds an employee against her will, and a R50 000 fine for sexual impropriety in a...
Discovery appeals dismissal of application for RAF to resume payments
Discovery Health CEO Ryan Noach says the company has appealed the dismissal by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) of its application seeking to compel...
No evidence of insanity when Dickason killed children, court hears
Despite Lauren Dickason’s defence team arguing that she suffered a serious depressive episode when her three children were murdered, an expert said her depression...
MEC's HPCSA hearing postponed
The disciplinary inquiry by the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) into Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba’s unprofessional conduct, which was set to...
‘Predatory’ US gynae gets 20 years for sexual abuse
A Manhattan gynaecologist, described as a “depraved predator in a white coat”, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars last week after being convicted...
J&J’s second bankruptcy bid fails
Johnson & Johnson’s second attempt to resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits over its talc products in bankruptcy has failed, with New Jersey Judge...
Lawsuit settled over illegal HeLa tissue harvested in 1950s
Laboratory equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific has settled a lawsuit brought by the estate of Henrietta Lacks, a long-dead cancer victim whose “immortal” cells...
Limpopo Health MEC must ‘face the music’ for migrant remarks, judge orders
Despite protestations of being “untouchable”, Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba will face a misconduct inquiry with the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA)...
Dickason's mother testifies in New Zealand murder trial
Taking the stand in the Christchurch, New Zealand High Court this week, Lauren Dickason’s mother said her daughter had loved her three children “very...