Spotsylvania County Dangerous Drugs Attorney
When you take a drug prescribed by your doctor to treat an ailment, you naturally trust that as long as you take the drug according to your doctor’s directions, it is not going to hurt you. Unfortunately, that is not always how it works out. Thousands of Americans are harmed every year by unsafe drugs that should never have been in the medical marketplace.
If you or someone you care for has been injured by a dangerous drug, you may be entitled to recover damages for medical bills, rehabilitation, and pain and suffering. An experienced Spotsylvania dangerous drug lawyer can examine the details of your case and advise whether you may have a claim against the drug company that produced the harmful medication, the doctor who prescribed it, or both.
Call our personal injury practice group, and we’ll put you in touch with an attorney who can help you to develop your claim.
Drug Company Obligations
Drug companies have a responsibility to conduct thorough research and medical testing to ensure that their drugs are safe and effective. They also have a responsibility to be open with the Food and Drug Administration when reporting the results of their medical trials, and to not hide any information that could prevent the drug from being approved as safe for public use.
The safety trials conducted must include enough people, and must take place over a long enough time for any potential side effects to emerge. Even after approval, if enough evidence arises that people are suffering harmful effects when taking the drug, the pharmaceutical company has the ability to issue warnings or pull their drug from the market while looking into the problem.
The FDA can also take steps to ensure consumer safety, such as warning doctors of harmful effects, ordering the company to conduct more research or place warnings on drug labels, or requiring patients to participate in certain programs in order to receive a drug. But these safety measures can take years to complete, and in the meantime, patients can suffering and even die.
The major drug companies make billions of dollars per year from their pharmaceuticals, and when you examine the figures, it is not difficult to understand why the may views the settlements, damage awards, and fines levied against them for producing dangerous drugs as a so-called “cost of doing business” in this high-stakes industry. Although the drug industry paid out roughly $7 billion between 2004 and 2010, those fees hardly made a dent in the earnings of the same time period.
Dangerous Drug Injuries
Any drug can be dangerous and cause potentially harmful and long-lasting side effects. Some of the most common drugs reported to cause adverse reactions are anxiety and antidepressant medications, diabetes drugs, hormone therapies and birth controls, anti-seizure drugs, heart and cholesterol medications, blood-thinners, acne medications, painkillers, gastrointestinal drugs, and kidney dialysis treatments.
Dangerous drugs can cause life-long damage requiring extensive treatment, and can even cause death. Injuries reported include kidney and liver damage, devastating birth defects, miscarriages, cancer, blood clots, heart damage, strokes, and suicidal thoughts.
Hiring a Spotsylvania Dangerous Drug Lawyer
If you live in Spotsylvania County, an experienced Spotsylvania dangerous drugs lawyer can guide you through the process of obtaining much-deserved compensation from a drug company responsible for your injuries.