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Defective Drugs and Personal Injury

Robert Huber

Each year, pharmaceutical companies introduce new prescription drugs onto the market for consumers. While this certainly goes a long way in increasing profits for these companies, not every drug that enters the market is safe and effective. In fact, there were over 280K patients admitted to hospitals in 2011 as a result of a drug-related health incidents. Defective drugs can lead to a wide variety of different long-term health issues, including kidney and liver damage or even death. In this article, we’ll detail some examples of the types of liability claims involved in these cases and explain who might be liable to provide compensation if you’re adversely effected by one of these products.

Determining Culpability

Establishing culpability in this type of personal injury case is complicated because there’s a wide variety of potential parties who may bear responsibility for the injury that occurred. Manufacturers are the first that come to mind, as they are directly responsible for mistakes during the manufacturing process. The party who recommended the product may also be liable for any adverse health effects resulting from the faulty drug product. This may include pharmaceutical sales representatives or doctors, as their poor advice directly led to the purchase of the drug in question. In some cases, hospitals and clinics may also be liable for the injuries sustained by the injured party, as they are responsible for any errors that may have occurred within the supply chain during the shipping process.

Liability Claims

There are three primary types of liability claims involving defective drug products. The first is defectively manufactured pharmaceutical drugs, which involves a faulty product being delivered to the point of sale. This can be the result of an error during the manufacturing process, the mislabeling of a product, or an incident occurring during the shipping of the drug to the retailer.

The second type of claim relates to products with dangerous side effects. Despite being properly manufactured, these products carry significant risk to consumers without providing a disclaimer. In certain cases, this occurs despite the manufacturer knowing otherwise, and in some cases these effects don’t become apparent until long after they’ve hit the market. The third type of liability claim relates to drugs that are marketed improperly to consumers, which entails failure to properly provide clear indicators regarding the risk of side effects. This also covers drugs that don’t provide accurate or clear instructions regarding their usage. It’s imperative that you consult with a personal injury lawyer before pursuing your lawsuit so that you can properly determine which type of liability claim applies to you.