Pharmaceutical litigation deals with lawsuits for defective drugs, where responsibility for damages lies with any party involved in the drug’s trade chain. Theories of liability include strict liability, negligence, and failure to report. Government agencies regulate prescription drugs, but their approval isn’t a guarantee of safety, and laws of a jurisdiction govern how consumers can recover damages.
Product liability is the area of personal injury law that deals with damages caused by defective products. A significant percentage of product liability claims involve drugs and prescription drugs. When an individual becomes ill or injured due to taking a defective drug, he has the right to file a lawsuit against the manufacturer or distributor of the drug. Pharmaceutical litigation is the branch of product liability law that deals with these lawsuits for defective drugs.
Pharmaceutical litigation has become more high-profile in nature due to the publicity surrounding large class actions of defective drug claims. Pharmaceutical companies are required to subject their products to rigorous tests and clinical trials before introducing them to consumers. Despite these precautions, thousands of people are injured each year by taking faulty drugs. In some cases, pharmaceutical companies will pull faulty drugs off the shelves before they can cause serious harm. However, legal action by consumers may be required before the safety of a prescription drug is called into question.
Responsibility for damages caused by a defective drug lies with any party involved in the drug’s trade chain. Pharmaceutical dispute claims could involve a number of parties, from the manufacturer of the defective drug to the distributor of the drug. The plaintiffs in pharmaceutical litigation cases may be individual consumers injured by a defective drug, or a lawsuit may be filed as a class action on behalf of hundreds or thousands of users injured by the drug.
There are several theories of liability that are used in defective drug claims, including strict liability, negligence, and failure to report. Each state has different laws that guide pharmaceutical litigation actions. Lawsuits from drug companies can involve claims that a drug was defective in design, mislabeled, contaminated during the manufacturing process, or ineffective for its intended use. Plaintiffs often argue that the drug company failed to provide adequate instructions for the drug’s use or disclosed side effects or negative test results.
In many countries, a government agency is responsible for regulating the manufacture and sale of prescription drugs. These agencies typically enforce stringent testing, labeling, and marketing requirements for prescription drugs, but their approval of a prescription drug isn’t a guarantee of safety, nor does it prevent harmed consumers from filing lawsuits. The laws of a jurisdiction often govern how a consumer can recover damages for injury caused by a defective drug in that jurisdiction.
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