In the U.S., deaths caused annually by opioid-related overdoses far exceed those in Europe and Asia. The case against the pharmaceutical companies alleges that they intentionally sought to deceive doctors concerning the side effects of the pain-management medication. Since pain is a symptom that doctors can treat, doctors dispensed the medication to their patients who then became addicted. This resulted in thousands of lives destroyed each in Florida, and tens of thousands across the U.S.

How Did the Opioid Epidemic Happen?

A lot of journalists and doctors have written extensively about America’s abusive relationship with pain-management medications. Suffice it to say, at some point in the 1990s, doctors began considering the impact of pain on their patients. Hospitals too considered pain levels among the kinds of feedback collected from patients. The pharmaceutical companies that produced opioid-based pain-management medications saw this as an opportunity.

However, instead of informing doctors about the risks of overdose or the addictive quality of these medications, they explicitly advertised the drugs as “safe and effective.” It is this fact that Palm Bay is keying in on to make their case against big pharma.

The lawsuit is being patterned on traditional personal injury lawsuits.

Defendants Include Four Major Pharmaceutical Companies

Palm Bay has named Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Cephalon, Johnson & Johnson, and Janssen Pharmaceuticals in the lawsuit. The city is alleging that the pharmaceutical companies committed acts contrary to the public good and unjustly benefited from those acts by knowingly selling addictive medications that resulted in an unimaginable cost in police, EMS, firefighters, and others. The city is arguing that the opioid epidemic is responsible for both past and future damages.

Pursuing Legal Action against Opioid Manufacturers

Individual lawsuits against opioid manufacturers have increased steadily in recent years. Today, governments are going after the companies the very same way that they did big tobacco. They’re also doing it for largely the same reason: that the manufacturers of both products neglected to inform their consumers of the consequences of use.

Since 2000, over 300,000 people have died because of pharmaceutical-related overdoses of medicine that they were prescribed by doctors. Countless more have taken to the streets in order to satisfy an addiction that began after a surgery. With the death toll rising, many are asking why European and Asian countries don’t have the same problem that we here in the U.S. have. Hence why the evidence against Big Pharma is so damning.

Seeking Help if You Have Been Injured

If you or someone you love has been victimized by these drugs, you can sue for damages. The pharmaceutical companies failed to include safety mechanisms nor warned doctors about the inherent dangers of overprescribing them. You could be entitled to medical expenses, lost time from work, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, wrongful death, and more.

Traditionally cases like these have been difficult to prove, but with a sitting president willing to speak out against the opioid epidemic, and big pharma’s role in creating it, that may be a thing of the past.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. of Miami at 305.371.3111, and we’ll do everything in our power to see that your case is heard and you’re compensated for your injuries.

Resources:

cnbc.com/2018/03/01/trump-suggests-government-will-sue-drug-companies-over-opioid-crisis.html

nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1710756

vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/7/15724054/opioid-companies-epidemic-lawsuits

vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/3/16079772/opioid-epidemic-drug-overdoses

floridatoday.com/story/news/2018/05/07/palm-bay-city-hall-file-lawsuit-against-big-pharma-fight-opioids/586790002/

At the center of the court’s decision was the question of whether or not there existed a “medical malpractice insurance crisis” that plagued doctors with “junk lawsuits”. Bush argued that these lawsuits raised the cost of malpractice insurance and thus represented a threat to the public good. Higher malpractice insurance was said to raise the cost of health services for everyone and thus represented a serious barrier to the health and well-being of Florida’s citizens.

No Evidence that Damage Caps Resulted in Lower Insurance Premiums

The damage caps were instituted in the hopes that they would lower the doctor’s and hospital’s legal liability in lawsuits where patient’s alleged malpractice occurred. The belief was that this would (in effect) create a chain reaction that would reduce health costs for everyone. That never happened.

The justices argued that the most notable impact that the damage caps had was to put an unfair burden on patients that suffered the most egregious personal injury.

The Malpractice Case that Killed Damage Caps

The majority of malpractice cases involve correctible injuries to patients. They may have severe pain and discomfort for a period of time, but can eventually return to their lives. In some cases, however, a patient emerges from a routine surgical procedure with their lives forever changed. Such was the case for one woman, a dental assistant that went to the hospital for carpal tunnel surgery.

Carpal tunnel surgery is meant to reduce pressure on the nerves in the wrist. The woman awoke complaining of severe pain in her chest and back. The anesthesiologist had accidentally put a hole in her esophagus. Nonetheless, she was released from the hospital.

The next day, when she was rushed back, the doctors caught the error. She was placed into a medically-induced coma for three weeks and had to undergo a series of surgeries in order to repair the damage. At the time of testifying, the woman still suffered from pain when eating alongside severe mental anguish.

Economic vs. Non-Economic Damages

Bush’s law effectively put a cap on pain and suffering or non-economic damages. Economic damages include any countable amount of money that a plaintiff lost due to the personal injury. For instance, that can include:

• Current and future medical expenses
• Current and future lost time from work
• Current and future accommodations for living with an injury
• Loss of property

Non-economic damages are more difficult to quantify. Those can include:

• Physical pain and suffering
• Emotional anguish
• Loss of companionship/consortium
• Loss of enjoyment of life

The Bush-era law was struck down under the auspice of equal protection. The law, justices argued, unfairly limited the protection of those who had suffered life-altering injuries due to medical malpractice.

Contact Us Today for Help

If you have been injured in Miami, you’ll need an attorney who will fight for your right to fair compensation. Reach out to the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. and we’ll make certain you get the settlement that you deserve.

Resources:

palmbeachpost.com/news/crime–law/another-legal-hit-for-medical-malpractice-caps-florida/LaRujM9kj9v36IUrTk8rlL/

sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-bz-sup-court-overturns-med-mal-cap-20170608-story.html

Many questions remain that must be answered about the off-label use of Zofran. As the information about this drug increases, doctors and patients alike will want to know whether the drug is safe, or if it causes unreasonable risks. Currently, Zofran does not have a list of potential side effects if used during pregnancy.

Off-Label Use – What It Is

When we talk about off-label use of a drug, it can be confusing. Every drug that is approved by the FDA was approved to treat a certain illness or group of illnesses. That approval comes after extensive studies and trials of a potential medicine to ensure that the drug is safe to use, and is effective. If the drug proves effective but unsafe, it still may be used as long as the negative side effects are communicated to the patient upfront. That way the patient can decide whether taking the drug is worth the risk.

So what is off-label use?

Doctors occasionally discover that an approved drug can be used to effectively treat a disease that it was not approved to treat. Zofran is an example of this. As many know, pregnancy can cause terrible bouts of morning sickness. In his or her mind a doctor may say, “we don’t have a specific drug to treat morning sickness, but we do have this great anti-nausea medicine that will probably work.” When a doctor prescribes a medicine to treat a disease it does not have FDA approval to treat, that is considered off-label use. The problem here is obvious: Zofran was never tested to see what effects it has on pregnant women. Does it cause birth defects? Does it hurt the mother? When it comes to off-label use, that question, too often, is answered in a courtroom after a lawsuit has been filed.

How Can Doctors Prescribe Off-Label?

The FDA has guidelines for off-label use. Doctors should:

• Prescribe only legally available medicines according to their best knowledge and judgment; and
• If doctors are going to prescribe medicine off-label, they bear the responsibility to ensure that the medicine does not have harmful effects.

While these are good guidelines, it also opens patients up to potential risks. The primary risk is that if a medicine has not been studied for its potential side effects, it’s impossible for the patient to know the risks. But now Zofran is being studied. One Danish study shows that the active drug in Zofran does have potential negative side effects for the unborn child, including the potential for causing birth defects.

Reach Out to Us Today

At Alan Goldfarb, P.A. in Miami, we represent victims who are injured by pharmaceutical products, including Zofran. The laws involved in these cases are highly complex and require knowledge and experience to successfully prosecute them. Contact us so we can evaluate your case for you.

Prescription Drug Distribution

Most people erroneously assume that so long as you take a prescription as directed, it cannot cause you harm. This is generally a true statement, if the prescription adequately reflects what the physician intended to prescribe. This concern reaches beyond mere typographical errors. A doctor has an obligation to take a detailed medical history of the patient before writing any prescriptions. While the patient should always disclose the information necessary to allow the doctor to make an informed decision about a course of treatment, the doctor must ask as well. Failure to take a detailed patient history may lead to overlooking allergies, previous negative interactions with medication the patient is currently taking, or a significant medical history that would change the approach the doctor would otherwise take.

Prescription Drug Injuries

The best case scenario is that a patient takes a pill of an incorrect dosage or a pill they have an aversion to and they feel a bit nauseous. Conversely, the worst case scenario is that the patient dies. And, while this is clearly a severe and unlikely outcome, it does happen. Even failures to inform patients of side effects of medication can be actionable legal issues if the patient experienced dizziness and caused injury to another person while driving, for example. Other negative possibilities include organ damage, heart trouble, breathing trouble, loss of vision or motor control, and other side effects.

Miami Prescription Drug Error Lawyers

We trust our doctors to prescribe us with medication that we can safely take, and we are not wrong for doing so. However, when a doctor fails to abide by his duties and writes a prescription that leads to injury, illness or death, he must be held accountable. At Alan Goldfarb, PA, our experienced medical malpractice attorneys know how to navigate complex medical malpractice claims and will determine where the responsibility lies, whether it be with the doctor, the pharmacist, or administrative staff. It is our objective not only to ensure your health and safety, but to make sure that the physician is held responsible for his errors and to advocate to make sure those errors do not harm anyone else in the future. If you or anyone you know has been injured or became ill due to a prescription drug error, contact our Miami-based legal offices to learn more about your legal options.