From unanticipated side effects to the “Opioid Epidemic,” thousands of Americans will have been harmed by dangerous prescription drugs. In today’s post, the dangerous drug injury lawyer at The Doan Law Firm will provide an overview of dangerous drug lawsuits followed by an invitation to contact our firm to discuss the specifics of your case and a review of the legal options that may be available to you.
Although there are a number of reasons for filing a dangerous drug lawsuit, most of these lawsuits will cite one or more of the following reasons. Each reason will be discussed in following sections.
- Defects occurring at the time the drug was manufactured
- Drugs with dangerous side effects
- Improper marketing of prescription drugs
- Improper prescribing of narcotics and synthetic narcotics (opiates)
Defects occurring at the time the drug was manufactured
Drug manufacturers are responsible for insuring that their products are manufactured according to a very strictly-controlled process and that only “pure” or uncontaminated ingredients are used in the manufacturing process. Fortunately, these defects are rare in drugs manufactured in the United States, Canada and Europe. Since many generic drugs are manufactured in countries such as India and China (which have much less oversight and regulation of the drug manufacturing process), imported prescription drugs are more likely to be affected by manufacturing defects.
Drugs with dangerous side effects
Although any prescription drug may have side effects, some drugs have side effects that could lead to a dangerous interaction with other drugs or even when taken alone. This is particularly true of analgesics (“pain killers”) such as morphine or Dilaudid and the synthetic opioids such as Oxycodone. Although many states have filed lawsuits against the major drug companies in response to the ”Opioid Crisis,” at this time there is nothing that prevents a private citizen from filing a dangerous drug lawsuit against the manufacturer of any drug that has led to an injury or death.
Improper marketing of prescription drugs
Drug companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a single product. In order to recoup their investment, new drugs are aggressively marketed to physicians, health care providers, and pharmacies. During this marketing activity, potentially serious side effects are often “downplayed” or not mentioned at all on the assumption that the physician or health care provider will “read the label” (the highly technical material that describes, among other things, the drug’s side effects and interactions with other drugs). If it can be shown that a manufacturer and its sale representatives repeatedly engaged in such marketing techniques, such marketing practices could be cited in a dangerous drug personal injury lawsuit.
Improper prescribing of narcotics and synthetic narcotics (opiates)
There has much publicity on both the national and local scale regarding the “Opioid Crisis,” the abuse of “legal” prescription medications by those from all walks of life who have become addicted to these medications. In many cases, prescriptions for these dangerous drugs are obtained from “clinics” operating at the fringes of legitimate medical practice and filled by pharmacists motivated by the profits to made filling such prescriptions. Although currently relatively few in number, there are more and more wrongful death lawsuits being filed against health care providers and pharmacists who are distributing these medications on an almost wholesale basis with full knowledge that these drugs will be diverted for resale to addicts.
Contacting a Dangerous Drug Injury Lawyer
Thanks to the modern drug industry disease such as diabetes; tuberculosis; heart disease and bacterial infections can be controlled or, in some cases, cured. Even though most of us benefit from prescription medications, in a small number of cases a drug will cause unintended side effects that can be more dangerous that the condition they were prescribed to treat. In many cases the use of such medications may lead to a dangerous drug lawsuit.
Dangerous drug lawsuits are notoriously complicated matters. In addition, these lawsuits usually require financial resources that are unavailable to those injured by a dangerous drug or to their families.
If you or a family member have been injured by a dangerous drug, we invite you to contact the dangerous drug injury lawyer at The Doan Law Firm, a national personal injury law practice with offices located throughout the country.
When you contact our firm to discuss your potential dangerous drug lawsuit, your case review and first consultation with our dangerous drug injury lawyer are always free and do not obligate in any way. After speaking with our dangerous drug lawyer, if you decide that a lawsuit is in order we are willing to assume full responsibility for all aspects of preparing your case for trial in exchange for a percentage of the final settlement that we will win for you.