When you take an over-the-counter medicine or a drug your doctor prescribed, you expect it to make you feel better. Sadly, many pharmaceutical companies put out dangerous or defective products that cause severe harm. If companies produce products that are unsafe to use, they are legally responsible for the consequences.
At Ostroff Godshall Injury and Accident Lawyers, an experienced attorney like Jon Ostroff can explain your legal options if you suffered severe side effects or developed a serious health condition because of a medication. A Quakertown dangerous drugs lawyer can help you get the payments you deserve for your losses caused by medications like Abilify, Nexium, Onglyza, Prilosec, Taxotere, testosterone supplements, or Xarelto.
We are prepared to fight against the greedy corporations that put shareholder profits ahead of patient safety. Our firm has a long track record of success in teaming with lawyers nationwide to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable.
FDA Approval Doesn’t Mean a Drug is Safe
A company must get approval from the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before it can sell a new drug. Many people mistakenly believe that if a drug has FDA approval, it is safe to use as directed. That is not necessarily true.
The FDA reviews information the company provides about a drug’s safety. The FDA trusts that each company does the necessary testing and provides accurate data. But companies want to start selling a drug and making money as quickly as possible, so their testing might be less thorough than it should be. Some companies have even falsified data to get permission to start selling their products.
A Quakertown dangerous drugs attorney could review the company’s FDA filings for any false safety data or failures to conduct necessary tests. The company could be liable to the injured victim even if the testing was adequate, as drug companies are strictly liable for their dangerous products.
Commonly Prescribed Dangerous Drugs in Quakertown
Many drugs that seemed safe when they went on the market later produced severe side effects or led to other health conditions for users. The law makes pharmaceutical companies liable if they sell unreasonably dangerous drugs.
Physicians routinely prescribe drugs that are eventually found to be highly dangerous. Some examples include:
- Actos, a diabetes drug linked to bladder cancer
- Januvia, a diabetes drug that may cause pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer
- Levaquin, an antibiotic that could cause aortic aneurysm and tendon damage
- Nexium and Prilosec, drugs for acid reflux and ulcers that cause bone loss, fractures, kidney disease, and might cause dementia
- Paxil, Celexa, Lexapro, and Zoloft, antidepressants linked to birth defects
- Pradaxa, a blood thinner that could lead to severe internal bleeding
- Viagra, a drug that treats impotence, is linked to melanoma, a potentially fatal cancer
- Zofran, a treatment for nausea and vomiting, could cause heart defects and cleft palate in the children of women who take it during pregnancy
This list provides just a few examples, and many other drugs might cause other severe health conditions. A Quakertown lawyer at our firm can further advise on whether a medication you took has been linked to a severe health effect.
When a pharmaceutical company produces a product that causes significant harm and does not provide proper warnings, the company must pay the people who suffered injuries from the drug. The company also could be responsible for peoples’ injuries if the drug’s formula or a manufacturing error produced a dangerous product.
Seeking Damages in Dangerous Drugs Cases
Drug manufacturers spend hundreds of millions of dollars developing and marketing their products. They spend millions more defending themselves from lawsuits. Large pharmaceutical companies have teams of attorneys from fancy law firms working around the clock to avoid paying for the harm their drugs caused to people like you.
One way for injured people to fight back is by joining a class action or mass tort lawsuit. These options allow many people harmed by the same drug to sue the company that manufactured it. The procedures differ, but class actions and mass torts are efficient and cost-effective ways for people to make drug companies pay for their negligence.
You do not need to take on a huge corporation alone. Talk to your Quakertown dangerous drugs lawyer about whether a mass tort or class action lawsuit is the best way for you to get the money you deserve.
Call a Quakertown Attorney to Fight Back Against Drug Companies
If an unsafe medication severely affected your health, you deserve seasoned representation from a Quakertown dangerous drug lawyer at Ostroff Godshall Injury and Accident Lawyers. We know how to take on big companies and win the compensation our clients need to compensate for their losses.
Let us fight like hell for you at every step of the legal proceedings. You will not pay us a single cent until we win your case, so call our firm today to get started.