In our winter newsletter, our Texas pharmaceutical injury attorneys wrote about the controversy over Actos, the widely prescribed diabetes medication produced by Asian drug giant, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Victims and survivors of victims have filed thousands of lawsuits against the company claiming that Takeda withheld information regarding the heightened risk of bladder cancer from taking the drug.
Plaintiffs also claim that the company failed to provide sufficient warnings to users of the risks of taking the drugs. Efforts are underway to consolidate the thousands of pending lawsuits to streamline the litigation process.
But Actos isn’t the only drug at the center of a mass of lawsuits. Zoloft, Paxil, Vioxx, and many more drugs with highly recognizable names form the center of a storm of litigation. Many of these lawsuits revolve around contentions that the manufacturers failed to warn of serious side effects, marketed the drugs for unapproved uses, failed to warn of particular dangers from long-term use of the drugs, or failed to warn of the potential for birth defects in babies born to mothers taking the drugs.
The bottom line is that many of the most widely used pharmaceuticals could present some serious dangers to large numbers of their users. And efforts to warn users of the dangers seem lacking to our Texas pharmaceutical injury attorneys. Sometimes the flaw lies in the science behind the drug. Sometimes the error rests in overly aggressive marketing tactics and ruthless profit seeking.
Part of the problem is that many people like to believe that a magic pill will cure them of years of bodily abuses and neglect. Patients willingly accept drugs without question. They don’t look for remedies like diet or exercise that might require more effort to implement than popping a pill.
Like most complex problems, drug safety is a multi-faceted issue that defies easy solutions. Our Texas pharmaceutical injury attorneys caution that as long as people want to rely on pharmaceuticals as magic cure-alls for their ills, the opportunity exists for profit-seeking companies to take advantage of this desire. The race to rush to market with the next big drug ahead of competitors might lead to cutting corners in scientific research, drug trials, or safety oversight. The negative effects of this market race on your health and safety might not be deliberate, but they could affect you just the same.
If you receive injuries or lose a loved one because of an undisclosed pharmaceutical side effect, you do have recourse. Schedule a free legal consultation with one of our experienced Texas pharmaceutical injury attorneys to discuss your case. We could help you recover just financial compensation from the drug manufacturer in recompense for your injury and loss.