Pharmaceutical Litigation

You’ve Been Injured. What Next?

Personal injury cases are based on the premise that someone was injured by the act of another person or entity. If you find yourself in this unfortunate situation, you should seek out a top personal injury attorney who can fight for you and your rights. Since these cases are not necessarily clear cut, it is rarely advisable for you to go this alone.

When pursuing your personal injury case, the first thing on your list should be finding a good attorney. Even after you have narrowed down your choices, you still need to do a little research in order to make sure that he or she will be the right fit for you. This means looking for reviews from other clients, complaints, and even pending lawsuits that may have been filed. The Better Business Bureau is a great place to find this kind of information.

The Face to Face Meeting

You will next want to set a meeting with your attorney. Here, you will discuss the details of your case to determine if you do, in fact, have a viable claim. This is when your attorney will instruct you on what can be expected through each step of the process. This is also the time that your attorney will instruct you as to what will be expected of you. This will include any information you may have, the facts of your case, contacts who can help to verify your case, and any other information pertinent to your claim. The defendant’s attorney will also be contacting your attorney to swap information material to the case.

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What Constitutes Medical Malpractice?

When a physician deviates from the applicable standards of care that other physicians would exercise under the same circumstances, this is potentially a case of medical malpractice. To succeed with such a claim in court, a plaintiff must prove breach of the standard of care (a mistake that a prudent and reasonable doctor wouldn’t have made under the same circumstances), causation (proof that the injury wouldn’t have occurred or have been as serious if it wasn’t for the doctor’s mistake), and damages (in the form of lost wages, medical bills, agony, mental suffering or death).

Demonstrating proof of malpractice almost always requires the testimony of an expert witness in the same field of practice as the alleged negligent health care worker. In addition to bringing action against a negligent doctor in such a case, through the doctrine of vicarious liability, claims can also be brought against hospitals, nurses, and any other health care professionals who may have had a part in the negligence.

Pharmaceutical Injury

Annually, thousands of patients are injured, and even die, due to complications and negligence that result from errors in treatment.These may include medication errors, surgical malpractice, bacterial infections, birth injury, dental malpractice, errors in diagnosis, wrong site surgery, gastric bypass errors, breast implant complications, emergency room mistakes, elder abuse, nursing home neglect, and a variety of consequences resulting from pharmaceutical mishap.

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Recently, the former CEO and chairman of KV Pharmaceutical Company pled guilty to tampering with pharmaceuticals, according to Businessweek. He was fined $1 million and sentenced to a month in prison.

According to officials, the company manufactured generic prescription drugs, including morphine. The CEO decided to increase production of morphine by more than double in a two year period between 2006 and 2008. In late 2008, the company shipped oversized pills to retailers in California. Those pills claimed to have the same strength as regular morphine tables, but they actually were much stronger. The tablets weighed more than twice what they were supposed to. The company conducted a study and found that oversized morphine tablets pose increased risks to consumers, such as the risk of an overdose that could lead to a coma or death.

Currently, the company no longer manufactures morphine tablets. Since 2009, the company’s ability to manufacture drugs has been regulated by courts. The CEO was removed from office in December 2008, and resigned from the company’s board late last year. A subsidiary of the drug company plead guilty this month to two felony fraud counts, and was order to pay over $27 million in fines.

Consumers assume when they purchase a drug that they will receive what they are promised. Companies that either accidentally or intentionally manufacture products that are not as advertised can be held liable for any damages that result.

Have you been injured as a result of a dangerous or defective drug? If so, contact the San Fernando Valley pharmaceutical litigation attorneys at the Mandell Law Firm at 818-886-6600.

Qualitest Pharmaceuticals recently recalled three lots of hydrocodone-and-acetaminophen tablets due to a mix-up in labels, according to MedPage Today.

The drugs were recalled after a bottle of hydrocodone was found with a phenobarbital label. If patients mistakenly took hydrocodone-and-acetaminophen instead of phenobarbital, they could wind up in a coma, suffer from CNS depression or respiratory depression, or even die. Also, patients who miss doses of phenobarbital could lose seizure control.

The drugs that are being recalled were distributed between September and December 2010. To tell if your drug is one that is affected by the recall, you could check the lot numbers, or look at the capsules themselves. The hydrocodone tablets are large, pink and capsule-shaped. They have “3600” on one side and a “V” on the other. In contrast, the phenobarbital tablets are small, white, and round. They have “5012” on one side and a “V” on the other.

Fortunately, no one has suffered any medical harm from the labeling mix-up. However, consumers experience negative side effects every day in the U.S. from improperly labeled drugs, drug manufacturing errors, or drugs that are unsafe for other reasons. Pharmaceutical companies are responsible for ensuring that medications are safe for consumer use and contain adequate labeling describing potential side effects. If not, the companies can be held liable for damages if a patient suffers as a result of taking the defective or improperly labeled medication.

Have you been injured by a dangerous drug? If so, you could have a cause of action against the drug manufacturer. Call the San Fernando Valley pharmaceutical litigation attorneys at the Mandell Law Firm today at 818-886-6600 to learn more.

A recent article stated that the cancer drug, Mylotarg, will be recalled due to new studies revealing that it has a higher rate of deadly health risks and a low amount of health benefits. The drug was originally released in the year 2000 in order to help cancer patients who were not responding well to chemotherapy.

According to the FDA, the drug went through several new clinical trials in which it was determined that the drug did not appear to work and that patients taking the drug had a higher rate of death than those patients on chemotherapy. Regulators apparently knew of the connection of the drug to veno-occlusive disease – a life threatening liver condition – but underestimated the high rate of occurrence that the condition had in patients using the drug. In light of this new discovery, the drug is being recalled.

Mylotarg has been deemed a defective drug and will be removed from the market due to the serious, sometimes fatal, injuries it has caused. Pharmaceutical companies responsible for designing, manufacturing and marketing drugs that are dangerous or defective may be held accountable for failing to properly warn customers about the risks of the medicine.

If you or someone you love has been seriously injured or wrongfully killed by medication that has been recalled and deemed dangerous, please call one of the experienced San Fernando Valley pharmaceutical litigation attorneys at The Mandell Law Firm today for a free consultation. Our attorneys have years of experience dealing with pharmaceutical and personal injury litigation and will be able to help. We can assist you in obtaining compensation to pay for steep medical expenses, rehabilitation, therapy, and loss of income. Call The Mandell Law Firm today at 818-886-6600 for a free consultation and to learn more about how we can help.