New York: Bayer may have known dangers of drug Baycol

Documents released by lawyers suing pharmaceutical maker Bayer indicate executives knew the anti-cholesterol drug Baycol was causing illness long before Bayer pulled it off the market, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Company documents, including e-mails, memos and sworn depositions by executives, suggest that Bayer continued to promote the drug despite a company analysis that found patients on Baycol contracted a rare muscle condition much more often than patients on alternative drugs.

About 7,800 lawsuits have been filed against Bayer and its British marketing partner, GlaxoSmithKline.

Texas: Professor carried vials of plague on airlines

The Texas Tech University researcher accused of lying to the FBI about missing vials of plague bacteria repeatedly carried live samples of the germ aboard commercial airliners, a newspaper reported.

Thomas Butler’s attorney, Floyd Holder, told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that the professor imported plague about 60 times in the past 30 years, but said his method of transporting the specimens was “absolutely safe.”