Defective Drugs Lawyer

The prescription drug distribution chain involves several different parties. If you suffered a stroke, hemorrhage, or other injury because of a defective drug, you may file a legal complaint against any of the responsible parties in the distribution chain. An experienced defective drug lawyer can determine which party may have liability for the harm caused. The civil court system could award you financial compensation to help you recover.

Defective Medications

At Gordon & Partners, we represent people who have been injured as a result of taking unsafe drugs. When drug manufacturers put profits ahead of public welfare, they should be held responsible for their actions. Our defective drug lawyers can help you fight for the justice you or your loved one deserves.

How Is Liability Determined When a Medication Causes Harm?

Most patients trust their physicians and take their medications as prescribed. Your medical records should disclose how your doctor diagnosed your condition and then prescribed the correct treatment for it.

You may sue your doctor, however, for prescribing a drug without warning you of its potential side effects. Prescribing pills for their “off-label” usage could also land physicians in court. If your medical provider knew about a drug’s ability to cause severe harm and neglected to warn you about it, you may hold the practitioner liable for the harm caused.

Some reasons you may sue pharmacies

Some patients harmed by medications may sue the pharmacies that sold them their prescriptions. Most drug stores create electronic records of their customers’ orders. Pharmacists can review each patient’s prescription data, and they should reasonably know when certain drugs can cause harm by interacting with other prescriptions. Pharmacies have a duty of care to inform their customers about the risks of the medicines they provide.

Overall, pharmacies owe a duty to warn their customers about potential side effects or complications when filling prescriptions. In cases where a pharmacist dispensed a mislabeled or expired batch of pills, you may hold the pharmacy liable for any harm it caused.

When Should I File a Lawsuit Against a Drug’s Manufacturer?

Manufacturers owe a duty of care to develop, test, and deliver medicines that safely promote consumers’ health. You may sue a pharmaceutical company for a developmental or manufacturing defect that harmed you.

The United States Food and Drug Administration requires manufacturers to follow its Current Good Manufacturing Practice guidelines. The FDA guidelines include producing safe products with the strengths and ingredients their labels describe.

Before mass producing a disease-curing drug, companies must also perform a sufficient amount of research and testing before obtaining usage approvals from the government. Without the required government approvals, drugs should not get to the consumer production and distribution stage.

Why recalls, manufacturing errors, and development flaws may occur

According to the FDA’s Fiscal Year 2022 Report on the State of Pharmaceutical Quality, 37% of recalled drug products fell below the federally mandated standards. The government also recalled medicines because of temperature and storage issues. Some manufacturers produced drug products with contaminated ingredients and deviated from the FDA’s CMPG guidelines.

In some cases, pharmaceutical companies rush to get their FDA approvals so that they can sell their products before their competitors can. Mistakes made during a drug’s development process could, however, result in abnormal side effects that the producers failed to anticipate or eliminate. Errors can also occur at a production facility when workers or machines speed up the bottling process. Common flaws include mislabeled bottles and packages or incorrect raw components entering the production process.

If any of the chemicals or compounds used to produce medicines aren’t handled properly, it could affect the quality of the final product. A skilled attorney could discover whether a drug’s defect came from a poorly produced batch or issues related to shipping the product in low-quality transport containers. Unexpected and harmful side effects may appear when end-users take medicines that weren’t adequately protected during shipping.

What’s Needed To Show a Manufacturer Was Negligent With a Drug’s Marketing?

The FDA requires pharmaceutical companies to produce drug packaging that includes clear and accurate information about the medicine contained inside. If you believe that a manufacturer’s marketing materials, product labeling, or usage information fell short of meeting the FDA’s standards, an experienced attorney could use those materials to support the claims made in a consumer-product legal action.

A drug’s advertisements must clearly describe any potential side effects, risks, and reduced effectiveness for treating certain conditions. Packages must also include the medicine’s “contraindications,” which describe who should not take them. This may include patients who had certain surgical procedures or have preexisting health conditions. Overall, marketing and packaging materials must describe any and all circumstances in which the medication could cause harm or interfere with other prescriptions.

Harm caused by misbranded products and deceptive advertisements

Most new medicines introduced to the market require prescriptions to obtain them. Your doctor or pharmacist must take reasonable steps to ensure that you know about any risks and contraindications. In some cases, new drugs get approved for “over-the-counter” sales. In the case of OTC medicines, doctors and pharmacists may not have a duty of care to warn consumers of their risks and potential side effects.

If you believe that a manufacturer produced an over-the-counter medicine that harmed you, you may file a lawsuit against the drug company to recover damages. You may need to show the court how the marketing materials or packaging text content influenced your purchasing decision. An experienced attorney can review those materials and evaluate how they failed to reasonably warn consumers of the drug’s potential for causing harm.

What Type of Compensation Could I Obtain Through a Defective Drug Lawsuit?

Ingesting or injecting a defective drug could result in unexpected and life-altering changes to your body and overall health. You may find yourself dealing with a chronic condition that requires long-term care. Depending on the severity of your circumstances, the court may award you both noneconomic and economic damages.

Noneconomic damages require calculating the value of losing the quality of life or companionship that you had before the medication in question harmed you. The court may also calculate the value of how much pain and suffering the defective drug caused, which may also include a monetary amount relevant to the emotional distress you endured.

Economic damages reflect the medical expenses incurred and could include the cost of hospital care, follow-up doctor visits, and rehabilitation sessions. Certain medical mishaps involving drugs could also cause physical disabilities. Harmed individuals may need to buy mobility aids, modify their homes, or arrange for assistance to meet basic day-to-day needs. An economic damages award could include compensation for the long-term and unexpected financial burden.

Tactics manufacturers might use to avoid paying compensation in defective drug claims

When you file a defective drug lawsuit, you may find the manufacturer’s legal team requesting personal information about you. The defense team may ask how you used the medicine and if your doctor should have prescribed it to you. The manufacturer’s attorneys may question how you obtained a prescription or if you bought it from an unauthorized distributor.

You may also face allegations that you did not use the medicine properly or that you used it in a way that the label warned against. To absolve the manufacturer of liability, the defense team may try to show that you had a pre-existing medical condition that caused your illness or injury.

What Could I Do To Help Win My Defective Drug Lawsuit?

Teaming up with a seasoned legal team could help you obtain the full amount of compensation your claim entitles you to. Our experienced defective drug team will review your circumstances and employ their skills to win your case. You won’t owe us anything unless we get you the compensation you deserve. Contact us now to learn more.