Defective Drugs Lawyer Fulton MD
Hundreds of thousands of people suffer each year after taking defective drugs. The reasons for the defects vary – pharmaceutical companies may not have adequately tested the drugs or the manufacturer may have failed to impose proper quality control. Defective drugs can cause great harm for the same reason that effective drugs can be so helpful – drugs are immensely powerful tools.
Unfortunately, once patients and doctors realize a drug is defective, damage may already have been done. Some people are suffering, and doctors are hopeful that newly minted drugs may hold the answer to their patients’ pain. Medical and prescription grade drugs are not the only ones that cause harm. There are so many over-the-counter drugs sold that even these comparatively weaker pharmaceuticals harm thousands of people every year. Natural supplements can also be dangerous, as the FDA and other oversight agencies don’t test or regulate these products.
Defective Pharmaceutical Specialists in Fulton
The attorneys at Discepolo Firm have won nearly $100 million for our clients in drug injury cases in Fulton, MD, the greater Baltimore and Chicago areas and nationwide. We have immense knowledge of the laws that affect cases involving faulty drugs in Columbia, Maryland, and every other state in which we practice. Discepolo offers nationwide co-counsel, so that our clients can take advantage of our expertise wherever they happen to be.
Our pharmaceutical litigation lawyers are familiar with cases that involve many pharmaceuticals companies and defective drugs, including the drug Byetta. The company behind this drug, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, ignored evidence that showed it could cause pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis. They also failed to inform physicians and customers about these dangers. Another injurious drug, Januvia was approved for use by the FDA in 2006 and become one of the best-selling pharmaceuticals in America. However, the FDA has repeatedly issued warnings to the company behind Januvia, Merck, requiring them to submit the drug for more testing of its possible pancreatic risks.
Other defective drugs include:
- Depakote
- Lipitor
- NuvaRing
- Mirena
- Zofran
- Tylenol
- Zoloft
- Celebrex
- Rezulin
- Ultram
- Testosterone like AndroGel, Axiron, Testim and Depo-Testosterone
Product Liability
Cases of defective pharmaceuticals fall under the purview of product liability cases. The FDA considers a pharmaceutical defective if it was:
- Manufactured defectively. If some error occurred during its manufacturing process, and resulted in an improper product.
- Defectively designed. When some flaw in the design makes all the products manufactured present with the same problem.
- Marketed defectively. This is also known as “failure to warn.” If the product lacked some warning of a danger that the company knew it posed, or it lacked proper instructions. Many defective pharmaceutical cases fall into this category due to a lack of information on potential side-effects.
Plaintiffs – those leveling charges – must prove a case of product liability in defective pharmaceutical cases in the following ways:
- The plaintiff must show they suffered an injury or other form of loss.
- The product must be defective.
- That defect must be the cause of the plaintiff’s injury.
Class Action Lawsuits Involving Defective Drugs
When many people suffer at the hands of the same defective drug, they may file together for a class action lawsuit. Others who have also been the victims of this drug in the same manner then have the option of joining the lawsuit. Class action lawsuits have some benefits over filing a separate claim: no single person has to figure out complicated legal issues and the lawyers for class action lawsuits usually have more experience than those representing single plaintiffs..
For questions involving faulty drugs and how they may have harmed you, contact our office. Discepolo Firm wants to go to work advocating for you today. No one should suffer because of Big Pharma’s greed.