Who is Responsible for Your Defective Drug Injury?

Peter Olszewski

Defective drugs can be more than just medicine that was made incorrectly. When other products are defective, that usually means they were misdesigned, or there was an error in manufacturing. A car’s air conditioning may emit an odor, or a new phone gets too hot. These defects mean the whole product is broken, but defective drugs are more than that, and so are the injuries caused by them.

A drug doesn’t have to be made incorrectly to be a defective drug. To be a defective drug, it only has to have multiple severe and potentially deadly side effects that outweigh the positives. There are drugs that can be considered defective but are at the same time doing what they are supposed to do. This can lead to confusing legal investigations to determine who is responsible for your injury if you are hurt by a defective drug.

Who Can Be Responsible for Your Defective Drug Injury?

Depending on how you were injured, several different people and entities can be responsible for your injury.

• The doctor who prescribed your drug. While the drug may do what it’s supposed to do, the doctor is supposed to consider its side effects. Some drugs have side effects that some people can handle and others can’t. If you are prescribed a drug that caused you more harm than good, it’s defective, but it’s the doctor’s fault for prescribing it.
• The pharmaceutical company that sold the drug without properly informing users and medical professionals of the risks. Have you ever wondered why so many drug commercials talk about the side effects? If they don’t, they become responsible for injuries they cause people who can’t handle the side effects. If they sell a drug with side effects people and doctors don’t know about it, the pharmaceutical company is responsible. If there is a side effect that the pharmaceutical company didn’t know about, they would also be responsible. It’s their job to know all of the side effects.

In the case of a doctor, you can sue for damages from the doctor, but as we’ve detailed before in our “When Can You Sue for Wrongful Death of a Loved One?” article, it’s better to file against the hospital.

Who Cannot Be Responsible for Your Defective Drug Injury?

To keep drugs that cause more harm than good from hitting the market, the U.S. has the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). All drugs need to be approved by the FDA before they can be provided to the general public. When a defective drug is released and people are hurt by it, you might think that the FDA shares some responsibility.

In actuality, it is not legal to sue the FDA for personal injury cases. While it makes sense to hold the FDA responsible for approving a faulty drug, it is not legal to do so. There are exceptions where the FDA can be sued, but personal injury cases are not one of them.

What Drugs Are Commonly Defective?

There are many drugs that have been the targets of lawsuits that can still be prescribed, or were prescribed to people recently enough that they still affect them. There is no guarantee that you’ll suffer an injury if you are prescribed or take one of these drugs. There is a chance based on previous instances where other people suffered a defective drug injury.

• Abilify
• Accutane
• Avandia
• Clomid
• Cymbalta
• Levaquin
• Lipitor
• Lyrica
• Nexium
• Opioids
• Plavix
• Rogaine
• Taxotere
• Xarelto
• Xifaxan
• Zoloft
• And more

If you’ve taken any of these drugs and have suffered from them, consult with your doctor to see if they’re the cause. If your doctor believes these drugs may be responsible for your injury, you might have a personal injury case.

What Should You Do After Your Injury?

If you feel sick or have suffered any kind of injury after taking what might be a defective drug, contact your doctor. Find out what’s wrong, if you may suffer more from your injury, and how it may impact you. If you find out it’s from a drug you bought or were prescribed, contact the attorneys at Scartelli Olszewski, P.C.

Our attorneys have the experience and compassion to fight for you against those who hurt you before leaving you to fend for yourself.