Pharmaceutical companies manufacture and market hundreds of new drugs each year. Each product is regulated and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before it reaches the consumer, yet every year over 200,000 people die from using these drugs. It is estimated that more than 50% of all the drugs marketed to the American consumer have deleterious effects, despite testing and FDA regulation.
Among the recent examples of harmful drugs, most were withdrawn from sale within 12 months of release. However, some were still marketed by drug companies even after evidence of serious side effects or death had been noted. By law, drug manufacturers are strictly liable for injuries if the product they sell is defective or unreasonably dangerous. This can happen in several ways.
- The product may be defective because of an error in the manufacturing process.
- Consumers may not be warned of possible bad effects from the use of the product.
- The product has a design flaw that makes it dangerous.
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In all of these cases, the manufacturer is liable and can be sued for damages even if they were unaware of the danger. It does not matter how carefully the product was produced or labeled.
Many pharmaceutical products have caused such widespread injury that thousands of lawsuits, called mass tort litigation, have been filed against the manufacturers. Some of these drugs include: Vioxx, Bextra, Zyprexa, Plavix and Celebrex. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals has paid billions of dollars for injuries sustained due to use of the weight-loss drug combination known as Fen Phen.
Of additional concern are the dietary supplements which are becoming increasingly popular. The FDA requires that manufacturers assure that such supplements are safe before selling them, but no formal testing or approval requirements exist.
If you or a loved one has sustained injuries from having taken any of these or other dangerous drugs,
call the Law Firm of Allen L. Rothenberg at 1-800-624-8888 or
submit an online InjuryLawyer.com free case evaluation. The initial consultation is
FREE of charge, and if we agree to handle your case, we will work on a contingency fee basis, which means we get paid for our services only if there is a monetary recovery of funds. In many cases, a lawsuit must be filed before an applicable expiration date, known as a Statute of Limitations, so please call right away to ensure that you do not waive your right to possible compensation or other benefits.
