Houston Unsafe Pharmaceutical Drug Lawyer

Pharmaceutical companies are supposed to be in the business of developing drug that will improve health and save lives. But too often, greed for profits causes them to cut corners, misrepresent the benefits of a drug, and push off-label use on doctors for the sole purpose of increasing the company’s sales. Drugs can cause serious side effects that are sometimes more damaging to a person’s health than the condition they’re intended to treat. Some are even fatal. Every year, about 4.5 million Americans require medical attention for an unexpected side effect of a prescribed medication. These numbers are staggering, and if you’re in a similar situation it’s important to contact a skilled Houston unsafe pharmaceutical drug lawyer immediately.

Pharmaceutical Company Obligation to the Public

Pharmaceutical companies, pharmacists, and physicians have an obligation to ensure that the drugs they are manufacturing, distributing, and prescribing to patients are not going to harm them. When a patient takes an unsafe pharmaceutical drug and it has a detrimental effect on his or her health, that patient may be entitled to compensation for damages in a personal injury or a wrongful death action. Sometimes a large number of people have suffered harm because of a particular medication, in which case they may join together in a class action suit against the manufacturer of the drug.

If you or someone close to you has been prescribed a medication that has caused serious damage, your best course of action is to consult a Houston lawyer who handles cases involving injuries and fatalities from unsafe pharmaceutical drugs. These cases are difficult to prove and usually require analysis and testimony from physicians and medical researchers, and others. The attorney you select should have access to well-respected experts to assist in the investigation.

The Role of the FDA

The Food and Drug Administration is a government agency with the responsibility to make certain that drugs that make it onto the market have been thoroughly tested and are safe for doctors to prescribe. They are supposed to identify any serious adverse effects that should keep the drug off the market or to  cause them to place restrictions on prescribing it or require a “black box” warning on the label. But the information they are given to evaluate is provided by the pharmaceutical companies themselves. Although the research may be conducted in generally respected academic settings, it is usually funded by the company that manufactures the drug, creating a bias and an incentive to report positive findings and discount negative ones.

The FDA may approve a drug for one use, but then pharmaceutical company representatives encourage doctors to prescribe it for different purposes than the one it was approved for. In some cases, this off-label prescribing has caused serious problems to certain patients.

Approval by the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t guarantee that a drug is safe, and many FDA approved drugs have had to be recalled after serious side effects materialized.

Problems with Drugs that Result in Harm

1. Manufacturing defects
2. Insufficient pre-market testing
3. Falsified research or clinical study findings
4. Failure to warn of possible side effects, interactions, or FDA recalls
5. Pharmaceutical sales reps promoting off-label prescribing

Bad Drug Lawyers in Houston

You can find the help you need at the Houston personal injury law firm of Gordon, Elias & Seely, LLP, where our lawyers have a long history of large value bad drug settlements that have enabled clients to move forward after experiencing a serious health problem or losing a family member who was prescribed a dangerous drug. We have sixty years of combined legal experience and a team of medical experts on call to support our investigation of your claim and to help to us prove the drug company’s liability.

Free Consultation

At Gordon, Elias & Seely, LLP, we want to help you make the right decision, so we invite you to schedule a complimentary consultation with one of our experienced, successful pharmaceutical company liability attorneys. We will review what happened to you, answer any questions honestly, and help you determine the best course of action to take against these greedy pharmaceutical companies that put profits before people.

Time to file a claim is limited by law, so call today. You will never pay expenses or legal fees unless we win compensation for you.