Parsippany, NJ, May 26, 2010 – GSK Consumer Healthcare today announced it will update the alli product label to alert consumers to certain symptoms that have been associated with rare instances of severe liver injury reported in people taking orlistat, the active ingredient in alli. This update follows FDA’s completion of its safety review of orlistat and is being implemented in conjunction with Roche, the manufacturer of the prescription dose of orlistat (Xenical). The agency stated that a cause and effect relationship has not been established.

The updated alli label will advise consumers to: “Stop use and ask a doctor if you develop itching, yellow eyes or skin, dark urine or loss of appetite. There have been rare reports of liver injury in people taking orlistat.”

“GSK is committed to ensuring that consumers and physicians understand the safety profile of orlistat and alli. Although reports of serious liver injury in people taking orlistat are rare, GSK takes all adverse events reports seriously. Reaching and maintaining a healthier weight is one of the most important things people can do for their health. GSK wants people to have the information they need to choose the right weight loss aid for their situation,” said Howard Marsh, M.D., Chief Medical Officer for GSK Consumer Healthcare.

alli is the only FDA-approved over-the-counter weight loss aid. Since alli was made available over-the-counter in 2007, more than 10 million people worldwide have used the product. With more than 100 clinical studies involving 30,000 patients, orlistat is the most extensively studied weight loss drug in the world and continues to be a safe and effective product when used as directed to help people lose weight. More than 40 million people have used orlistat since it first became available in 1998.

For more information about the safety and efficacy of alli, consumers and health care professionals may call 1-800-671-2554 or visit www.myalli.com.

About alli

About GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare
GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare is one of the world’s largest over-the-counter consumer healthcare products companies. Its more than 30 well-known brands include the leading smoking cessation products, Nicorette®, NicoDerm® CQ and Commit® as well as Abreva® and many medicine cabinet staples, including, Aquafresh®, Sensodyne,® Tums® and Breathe Right®.

Roni Deutch, widely known as The Tax Lady, celebrated the end of 2009 by holding an awards ceremony luncheon at the Sheraton Grand in Sacramento. She commemorated her team by acknowledging fourteen outstanding individuals and proclaiming them as her firm’s 2009 All-Star team.

Deutch stated, “My team did an awesome job in 2009”. She went on to commend their dedication to their careers and the taxpayers they work so hard to help. Roni Deutch is extremely proud of her All-Star team, as they went above and beyond their everyday job responsibilities and possess a high level of commitment and enthusiasm.

The members of the team at Roni Deutch, A Professional Tax Corporation, were just as excited about their success. At the luncheon, Deutch announced the members of her law firm’s 2009 All-Star team. The team consists of ten staff members made up of nine employees and one manager. All team members were considered to have exceeded performance expectations in 2009. In addition to the core members of the team, Deutch announced two Most Valuable Player awards as well as one Most Improved Player award for the employee whose performance had improved considerably over the course of 2009.

The members of the All Star team were announced as: Edward Lester, Manny Perez, Shanen Fox, Cathy Nunes Furao, Brandon Funk, Diego Increta, Paul Venable, Ryan Crawford, Nicole Elton, Brandon Ross, Scott Juceam (Manager), Ben Pollack (MVP), Justin Thompson (MVP), and Matthew Garrison (Most Improved Player).

Award recipients believed they were decorated with a great honor. They were commended for their valuation of team work, performance, and going above and beyond the call of duty.

Roni Lynn Deutch has been assisting taxpayers across the nation for over 19 years. She has saved her clients tens of millions of dollars and has helped thousands of families settle their back taxes. She is truly a leader in her industry.

A Paris court issued a ruling banning Google from scanning French-published books because they were in violation of the country’s copyright laws. It said that Google’s expansion into digital books is a breach of France’s copyright laws. In addition to this, the court fined the Internet search leader with €10,000 per day until it stops showing literary previews, especially of books published on French soil. This hefty fine is equivalent to almost $14,300 a day.

Aside from this, Google was also fined an additional €300,000 in damages and interest payable to French publisher La Martiniere, which brought the case to the Paris courts in behalf of a group of publishers from France.

Google, for their part, said they would appeal the ruling. This decision in France is another obstacle to the goal Google has set out to achieve before 2015: to scan all of the world’s books into a digital library that can be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection. A US legal settlement that can grant Google the digital rights to millions of books is in jeopardy because US regulators have foreseen and warned a federal judge in New York that the act can ruin competition in the growing market for electronic books. According to them, the agreement may also compromise copyrights.

The courts of France, and also that of Germany, have raised objection to this granting of digital rights to Google saying that this will overstep and violate copyrights of publishers in other countries. Google is trying to appeal its case amidst the clamor of its critics. The revised settlement submitted by the company is still under court review.

The French court ruling served as a big obstacle for Google and its ambition of getting into other markets beyond Internet search. Many critics speculate that Google is getting too powerful for the market’s good and that it will soon be eating up its competition and completely dominate the whole Internet market. Despite this, Google’s shares still gained $3.86, up to $597.80, in last December 18’s trading.

Texas’ health department will destroy millions of controversial blood samples as part of a lawsuit settlement approved Dec. 21, 2009.

Its defendants, who include the Department of State Health Services’ David Lakey and Texas A&M Health Science Center’s Nancy Dickey, are due to surrender more than 5.3 million samples. Extracted from babies without parental consent, the samples collectively have until April 13, 2010 to be destroyed.

Texas Civil Rights Project Director Jim Harrington was “very pleased with the way it worked out.” His Austin-based nonprofit organization led parents in filing the suit in San Antonio’s federal district court.

Dickey’s office, meanwhile, was “saddened” over the loss of such a “superb database.” The samples have been stores as blood spot cards in the Texas A&M Health Science Center for the past seven years.

“This database could have continued to shed light on causes of congenital birth defects and potentially led to preventive measures saving thousands of infants and their families the distress these defects cause,” her office said in a statement.

According to defendants, the samples were identified using codes, not the babies’ names. However, the state legislature passed a law on May 27 ordering health care providers to inform caregivers and parents of any blood extractions from newborns. The law gave impetus to parental protests.

Since the signing of the law, nearly 6,900 Texans have affixed their signatures on requests to destroy the blood spot cards. The Department of State Health Services continues to get hundreds of them each week.

Under the terms of the settlement, the department must destroy samples 60 days from receipt of the request. Otherwise, the owner of the sample could request it when he or she comes of age.

In addition, the department is bound by law to reveal relevant data regarding the blood samples on its website. They must include info on any research projects the samples benefited.

More than 240,000 children have been born in Texas since the department started extracting the samples in 2002.

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Dec. 7 that it will hear a church-state case, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez.

The dispute is over the recognition of the Christian Legal Society’s chapter at the University of California, Hastings College of Law, according to an article on Law.com.

The case is about the state law school’s denial of official recognition to the Christian student group because it does not meet the school’s requirement that membership and leadership positions should be open to anyone.

The group leadership requires that members sign a statement of faith that vows devotion to Jesus Christ. It also stipulates that one must not have a “sexually immoral lifestyle.”

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the school, so the society is taking the case to the higher court.

Read more about it here.

On Dec. 2, 2009, a lawsuit filed by Hert Global Holdings Inc. was dropped against a research firm that had previously stated that Hertz would be one of 20 companies in the states to go bankrupt in the next 12 months.

A spokesperson for Hertz said the case was dropped because its risk-exposure was low and that the company profits had risen since the announcement.

The libel suit was filed against Audit Integrity Inc, based in Los Angeles.

“The lawsuit was completely without foundation, and we look forward to continuing our efforts to provide objective, insightful research,” said Jack Zwingli, chief executive officer of Audit Integrity.