What Is Involved In A Claim Against A Drug Company?

Prescription drugs are designed to have certain medical benefits. Consumers rely on drug companies to provide adequate warnings about their safe use. Ideally, drug companies provide adequate warnings to the doctors who prescribe them, and those warnings are then communicated to the patient. In a perfect world, each patient receives adequate information concerning the risks and benefits, so that the decision to take the drug to treat a particular condition is an informed decision.

Effective warnings are not always produced by drug companies and communicated to physicians and patients. In certain situations, patients experience adverse side effects of prescription medications of which they were not warned. In such situations, manufacturers are often held accountable for not providing complete and accurate information about a medication.

Not every adverse effect experienced from taking a pharmaceutical drug supports a legal claim. There must be evidence that the drug company failed to warn of a serious side effect of which they knew or should have known. This information generally comes from two sources - internal company documents and articles or studies from the medical community. In addition, there must be evidence that the risks of taking the medication are not outweighed by the benefits. In other words, in situations in which no warnings were provided with a drug, the patient would not have teken the drug had he or she known of the true risks and nature of the side effects.

Even though all prescription drugs can cause negative side effects, not every injury caused by taking a drug supports a legal claim. There must be evidence of a failure to warn, and in addition, that the injury suffered was caused by that failure to warn.

The investigation process is very detailed, and for that reason, takes some time to complete. The typical investigation process will last several months. If there is a legal claim to pursue, that process also takes some time because of the complexities involved in pursuing pharmaceutical drug cases. In each, there are fact witnesses, company officials and expert witnesses who must be questioned as well as medical records to be reviewed. Drug companies vigorously defend pharmaceutical cases. Typically, it takes one to two years, if not longer, before a case is ready for trial.