3 Possible Ways That Pharmaceutical Drugs Could Be Responsible For Your Injuries
Posted on: 17 June 2015
Personal injury cases that stem from using pharmaceutical drugs can be complex. Before you can file a claim, you need to identify the reason for your claim. There are a few ways in which the pharmaceutical drugs that you used might have failed you. When filing your claim, it is important that you can identify how. There are three main categories into which the claims fall.
Side Effects
One possibility for your claim is to cite the side effects caused by the drugs. For instance, if you were taking a pharmaceutical drug, and after it had been on the market for a long period of time, it was discovered that it caused cancer, you possibly have a claim. It is not necessary for the manufacturer of the drug to know that the potential side effect existed. However, if the manufacturer did know and worked to conceal it, this can help increase the amount of damages you can recover.
Defective Manufacturing
If the pharmaceutical drug that caused you injury was defectively manufactured, you could cite this as the reason for your claim. In this situation, you only need to prove that at some point in the manufacturing process, an error in making the drug occurred. For instance, if medication to treat heart attacks was placed in bottles for drugs treating diabetes, this is considered to be defective.
Incomplete/False Marketing
The last category relates to how the drugs are marketed. The United States Food and Drug Administration requires drug manufacturers to provide certain warnings and other information on the packaging, commercials, newspaper ads, and other informational materials about the drug. If a company fails to fully disclose all of the information that is required and this results in injury, you could have a case.
In this category, liability is not solely limited to the pharmaceutical drug manufacturers. Other sources can be held accountable in this category. For instance, if your doctor provided you with bad information about the drug he or she recommended, you can file a claim against him or her. Other responsible parties can include a drug representative and even the pharmacist.
It is possible that your claim might fall into more than one category. If so, you can cite all of the categories that apply to your particular case. Your personal injury lawyer can not only help you identify the right category, but also help you identify which party is ultimately responsible for the injuries you have suffered.
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