NFL Concussion Settlement

August 29, 2013 by

On August 29, 2013, Federal District Judge Anita Brody approved a settlement between the NFL and more than 2000 former NFL payers amounting to $765 million:

According to the agreement, the NFL will pay $675 million to players and their families according to an agreed-upon schedule. Forbes Magazine broke the remainder down as follows:

In addition to the monetary relief provided to the players and their families, the NFL and NFL Properties will make the following payments:

  • No more than $75 million for baseline medical exams;
  • $10 million for a research and education fund;
  • No more than $4 million to pay for the costs of notice to the members of the class of plaintiffs;
  • $2 million representing one-half of the compensation of the Settlement Administrator; and
  • Legal fees and litigation expenses to the plaintiffs’ counsel (to be determined by the court).

 

Filed Under: Blog, Concussions, CTE, NFL Tagged With: , , , ,

pHLOGISTIX Founder Gives Talk on Sports-Related Concussion

June 7, 2013 by

pHLOGISTIX Founder, Barry Festoff, gave a presentation on June 4, 2013 to the Sports Medicine Concussion Group, Doctors Hospital/ Health System in Miami, Florida. The title of the lecture was Sports-Related Concussion and Development of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy: Diagnostics, Prevention and Treatment.

 

 

Filed Under: Blog, pHLOGISTIX News

Concussions in the NFL

February 18, 2013 by

Below are links to some recent articles addressing the ongoing issue of concussions among NFL players.

NFL Reports Remain Inconsistent

NFL’s Progress on Concussions Blurred by Inconsistencies

NFL Concussions: The 2012-2013 Season in Review

NFL Looks to Helmet Technology to Combat Concussions

The NFL Teams Up With GE on Concussion Technology

Why Philadelphia Court Should Toss NFL Concussion Lawsuit

The NFL’s CTE Clock is Beginning to Click in Real Time

Bad Brains: The NFL and its Concussion Crisis

Game Change: Brain Scans Offer New View of NFL Concussions

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blog, Concussions, NFL Tagged With: , ,

pHLOGISTIX to Partner with Innovative Technology Development Foundation

November 5, 2012 by

Innovative Technology Development Foundation (ITDF), a not for profit 501(c)3 public charity, was organized to work alongside pHLOGISTIX LLC for TBI and neurodegenerative disorders.

Filed Under: pHLOGISTIX News, TBI

NFL Responds to Player Lawsuits

November 5, 2012 by

In response to the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) supported mega-suit discussed in a previous blog post, the NFL released a statement: “Our legal team will review today’s filing that is intended to consolidate plaintiffs’ existing claims into one ‘master’ complaint,” The statement went on to read, “the NFL has long made player safety a priority and continues to do so. Any allegation that the NFL sought to mislead players has no merit. It stands in contrast to the league’s many actions to better protect players and advance the science and medical understanding of the management and treatment of concussions.”  The NFL then filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuits, including the mega-suit, and the players countered, in a brief filed in US District Court, by disputing efforts by the NFL to frame the cases as a labor issue. Their argument was that the legal system, rather than the sport’s collective bargaining agreements, should govern this exceptional case.

Filed Under: Concussions, News, NFL Tagged With: , ,

DOD and DVA to Intensively Study PTSD and mTBI

November 1, 2012 by

In recent years there has been a lack of clear criteria within the military for diagnosis and treatment of PTSD and this resulted in the reversal of close to 40 percent of PTSD diagnoses.  There is some evidence that 15-20% of all returning combatants from OEF/OIF and Afghanistan have PTSD, and this has led to a concerted effort by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) to improve the situation.

It was recently announced that traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will begin using new criteria for diagnosis and treatment in the military, DOD, and by DVA at VA hospitals. Both the DOD and DVA announced last month an investment of more than $100 million for research into improving diagnosis and treatment of mild TBI (mTBI) and PTSD. Two groups, the Consortium to Alleviate PTSD (CAP) and the Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium (CENC) will be jointly managed by VA, and by the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), on behalf of the DOD. According to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Jonathan Woodson, “these consortia will bring together leading scientists and researchers devoted to the health and welfare of our nation’s service members and veterans.” He added, “a primary goal of CENC is to

As reported in Time online:
– For PTSD, CAP “will study potential indicators of the trauma, as well as prevention strategies, possible interventions, and improved treatments. Biomarker-based research will be a key factor in CAP’s studies,” the CDMRP says. PTSD afflicts some troops after combat tours, and causes anxiety, depression and other mental ills.

– For mTBI, CENC will try “to establish an understanding of the after-effects of a mTBI. Potential comorbidities also will be studied; that is, conditions associated with and worsen because of a neurotrauma,” the CDMRP says. TBI is a physical wound – a concussion – usually suffered by troops near the shock waves of an improvised explosive device. It can bruise the brain and cause mood changes, fatigue and sleeping more – or less – than usual.

Filed Under: News, PTSD, TBI Tagged With: , , ,

Players Accuse NFL in Mega-Suit

October 23, 2012 by

With growing concern over the long-term effects of concussions and mTBI sustained by NFL players, as of May 25, 2012, eighty-one lawsuits had been filed with 2,138 former NFL players as plaintiffs, and 3,356 plaintiffs that included players, their spouses and other relatives. On June 7, 2012 a mega-suit, bringing these and others together, was filed in US District Court. The mega-suit stated that “after voluntarily assuming a duty to investigate, study, and truthfully report to the public and NFL players, including the Plaintiffs, the medical risks associated with MTBI in football, the NFL instead produced industry-funded, biased, and falsified research that falsely claimed that concussive and sub-concussive head impacts in football do not present serious, life-altering risks.” 

In response, the NFL released statements about many health programs run by the NFL for current and former players, along with medical benefits available to former players, including joint and traumatic arthritic-related programs such as joint replacement, and neurological evaluations and spine treatment programs. In addition, the NFL provides assisted-living partnerships, long-term care insurance, prescription benefits, life insurance programs, and a Medicare supplement program. The Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee, created by the NFL in 1994, recently published a general neurologic medicine article on Medscape entitled Repetitive Head Injury Syndrome.

Filed Under: News, NFL Tagged With: , , ,

Football’s Link to Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

September 21, 2012 by

Is football too dangerous? This was the title of an article in Junior Scholastic, a publication aimed at high schoolers and their parents. The article went on to discuss the sequelae (conditions the consequence of a previous disease or injury) and quoted Robert Cantu, MD, a Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), who said that he’s seen far too many players, even young ones, “who’ve had their lives altered” by concussions. Cantu is also Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) at BUSM.

It is important to realize that football players might suffer thousands of small blows to the head over a lifetime of playing, especially if they go on to play at the professional level. Such repetitive blows can lead to repeated bouts of mild TBI (mTBI) or concussions that eventually can lead to a brain disorder known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE, known previously as punch-drunk syndrome, was first observed in boxers (dementia pugilistica) and in clinical terms can cause memory loss, depression, and even dementia. As recently as the 1990s repetitive blows to the head were not considered a cause of later problems for either American or Australian football players but, beginning in late 2010, CTE has received greater attention with publications from BUSM and others.

CTE differs from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) neuropathologically in that it consists primarily of neuroinflammation and abnormal deposits within and outside nerve cells (neurons) called neurofibrillary tangles (NFTS). AD also has NFTs but is also primarily characterized by amyloid plaques outside of neurons. The NFTs are composed chiefly of abnormal amounts and types of a microtubule-associated protein called tau, and CTE and other conditions, including AD, are referred to as tauopathies.

Filed Under: NFL, TBI Tagged With: , , ,

pHLOGISTIX Turns Focus Toward Companion Diagnostics (CDx)

January 5, 2012 by

In late 2011, pHLOGISTIX made a business decision to incorporate companion diagnostics (CDx), a growing trend in the pharmaceutical industry because of the emphasis on personalized medicine, into its business strategy. The basis for this was the growing public awareness of the impact of concussion in everyday life.

Filed Under: Concussions, pHLOGISTIX News

Kansas Bioscience Authority – Kansas City Star

December 28, 2011 by

KU Cancer Center among recipients of $6 million in grants, investments

More than $6 million in taxpayer dollars, routed through the Kansas Bioscience Authority, were promised Monday to the University of Kansas Cancer Center and a handful of small companies.

The money, some of it investments, some of it simply grants, comes as part of the authority’s ongoing efforts to stimulate the bioscience industry in the state. The money comes from increased tax revenues to the state attributed to biosciences.

Among the awards, the largest was a grant of $2.3 million to Heartland Plant Innovations to fund its operations next year and support programs such as plant breeding.

The other KBA allotments included:

•A $1.6 million grant to Dicephera Pharmaceuticals to work with three other companies to advance its drug development programs. The company designs a cancer drug.

•A $1.1 million grant to the cancer center to recruit physician Raymond Perez as part of an ongoing effort to win a designation as a National Cancer Institute. Perez comes from Dartmouth Medical School and will be a leader at the center’s drug discovery and delivery program.

•A $600,000 equity investment in Novita Therapeutics for development of an implantable cardiovascular device intended to treat an unspecified chronic condition.

•A $400,000 grant to an unnamed company — the authority said the name was being kept quiet for competitive reasons — to help start a research and development laboratory in the state working in animal health.

•A $140,000 grant to Green Dot Holdings, based in Cottonwood Falls, for a research collaboration with the Kansas Polymer Research Center at Pittsburg State University to study a bioplastic and evaluate the use of alternative feed stocks.

•A $98,890 grant to Lenexa-based Phlogistix for research and development of a protein that plays a role in controlling inflammation.

Filed Under: Inflammation, pHLOGISTIX News
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