Drug manufacturers do everything they can to advertise and sell their pharmaceutical products. In doing so, they try to convince us that pharmaceuticals are the answer to all of our health problems and will help us live a happy and healthful life. While pharmaceutical drugs do help millions of Americans lead healthier lives, sometimes they make us less healthy and — in the severest of instances — they can even kill us.
Once it has been revealed that a certain drug is dangerous, New York residents who were injured by the drug will the ability to seek financial compensation for their injuries in court. Furthermore, family members of people who were killed by the drug will have the ability to pursue wrongful death claims. The nature of these claims, and the types of financial damages that may be pursued will depend on the extent of the injuries and the facts surrounding the particular drug at issue.
One important factor in pharmaceutical drug litigation relates to whether the product was deemed to be “unavoidably unsafe.” When a drug is unavoidably unsafe, it means that the drug could not be made safe even if it were carefully manufactured. These kinds of drugs usually have harmful side effects, but they may offer other benefits to the patient who takes them. When it comes to an unavoidably unsafe drug, a personal injury claim will usually depend on the question of whether the drug was adequately labeled to warn its user or not.
Drug manufacturers have a duty to warn their customers (i.e., the patients) who take the drugs of potentially harmful effects. If a New York patient takes a drug and suffers an injury because he or she was not adequately warned, then the patient might have a strong case to seek financial damages in court.
Source: FindLaw, “Pharmaceutical Drug Liability,” accessed June 03, 2016
