Adverse reactions to pharmaceuticals include serious injuries and even death. While some drugs are removed from the market, others have already caused irreversible damage. In some cases, manufacturers may keep drugs on the market even after they know of serious side effects. It is important to hold them accountable with the assistance of a drug injury lawyer. If you or a loved one suffered from an adverse reaction to a defective drug anywhere in the United States, the product liability attorneys at Moll Law Group are ready to advise and represent you in connection with a lawsuit for compensation against the manufacturer of a pharmaceutical, including Actos, Benicar, Fosamax, Granuflo, Naturalyte, Invokana, Januvia, and Lipitor. Other faulty drugs that may give rise to lawsuits include pharmaceuticals that cause birth defects like Celeza, Prozac, and Zoloft, as well as Onglyza, Pradaxa, Risperdal, SSRI antidepressants used during pregnancy, testosterone, Viagra, Xarelto, Zofran, Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella, and Gianvi.
Many pharmaceutical drugs have harmful side effects, and taking them may involve health risks. In some instances, a manufacturer may fail to properly disclose these dangers. You may recover compensatory damages for injuries caused by dangerous drugs under legal theories of negligence, strict liability, breach of warranty, or misrepresentation. Each theory requires proof of different things, but generally to recover damages you need to prove that the pharmaceutical was dangerously defective, that you suffered injuries, that the defect caused the injuries, and that you incurred damages.
Drugs can be dangerous in three main ways that may give rise to a product liability lawsuit: manufacturing defects, design defects, and marketing defects. Manufacturing defects involve drugs that have adverse effects due to an error during manufacturing or shipping. Design defects exist when a pharmaceutical is made properly but is formulated in a way that causes injuries. Pharmaceuticals may be on the market for a long time before the injuries are discovered, or manufacturers may know there is an unreasonable risk of harm and intentionally conceal it.
There are two ways to prove a design defect, as our drug injury lawyers recognize. A plaintiff may show that the pharmaceutical failed to perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect when it was used as intended or in a reasonably foreseeable way. Or a plaintiff can show that the design was the legal cause of the injury, and the benefits of the problematic design outweighed the risk of dangers inherent in that type of design.
Marketing defects are flaws in the instructions or warnings that come with the drug. Often, marketing defect cases turn on a failure to give accurate warnings or provide appropriate instructions about the safe use of the drug. In some cases, the doctor, rather than the manufacturer, supplier, or sales rep, is to blame for inappropriate or inaccurate advice about the product. Doctors also may be liable for medical malpractice as part of the chain of distribution for a pharmaceutical.
Most states recognize the learned intermediary doctrine, which is an exception to the rule that a manufacturer can be held strictly liable in tort for defective pharmaceuticals or medical devices. Under this doctrine, manufacturers live up to their duty to warn consumers of risks associated with pharmaceuticals by warning a prescribing physician of any risks and explaining how to use the pharmaceutical. The manufacturer cannot be held liable if it provided the doctor with adequate information about the risks.
The doctrine was developed with the understanding that the doctor is in the best position to give a warning and can also independently evaluate whether using the drug is appropriate in a particular situation. It is not applied in cases involving over-the-counter drugs, which can be obtained without a doctor's prescription.
The injury lawyers at Moll Law Group are available to help people nationwide pursue damages if they have been hurt after using a dangerous drug. We bring product liability lawsuits of significant size and impact in states such as California, Florida, New York, Texas, Ohio, and Michigan. Billions of dollars have been recovered in cases in which we were involved. Call us at 312-462-1700 or use our online form to arrange a free consultation with a drug injury attorney.