You may wonder how you can decipher whether a drug is defective. How can you sue a drug company for making drugs that are meant to help? Legally, here is how we look at it—does the drug cause additional negative side effects that are greater than the medical benefit for which you took the drug? Chemotherapy, for example, is no joyous ride but which is worse: the cancer or the side effects? Here, the medical benefits generally outweigh the negative side effects and chemotherapy is not considered “defective.” Additionally, patients are given thorough warning about the side effects.
On the other hand, if you were prescribed Zoloft for depression, were not given a list of risks about taking Zoloft during pregnancy, and then have a child with heart defects you probably will make a different analysis. The negative side effects outweigh the medical benefit for the Zoloft-user therefore a lawsuit is a perfectly reasonable option.
So as a rule of thumb, determine what side effects you would have experienced if you didn’t take the drug and compare that to the side effects of taking the drug. If taking the drug put you in a worse position (especially without adequate warning about that possibility), then the drug is probably defective. And be real, the drug-companies need to be held accountable for putting profit before patients, so if a drug caused your injury call a lawyer.
General negative side effects that may occur after the use of a defective drug:
- Heart attack
- Stroke
- Kidney failure
- Liver failure
- Pulmonary embolisms
- Immune Deficiency
- Birth Defects
- Death