Before actually hitting the market and becoming available to patients, prescription medications undergo extensive research and rigorous testing. For the most part this keeps dangerous and defective drugs from ever reaching the market, but on occasion the Food and Drug Administration — the FDA — will yank a medication off of the shelves. This decision can stem from a variety of reasons, most of which pertain to patient health and safety.
Taking prescription medication is certainly not uncommon in Ohio, and whether a person requires insulin for diabetes or an antibiotic to fight off an infection, patients expect that their medication will perform as promised. However, some dangerous drugs do sneak past the FDA and, once in circulation, can cause serious harm to patients. Drug-related injuries can cause a variety of health problems that require various levels of medical intervention and treatment.
So exactly how does a dangerous drug actually make it past FDA scrutiny? For some medications, the testing might not have been extensive enough or covered necessary demographics, such as pregnant women or individuals already suffering from prior medical problems. In other perhaps more upsetting situations, possible side effects or interactions might have been purposely withheld when the drug was submitted for review.
When a drug is recalled by the Food and Drug Administration, the move might be based dangerous possible interactions with other medications or health issues. Without adequate warning that a drug could cause harm when mixed with another, Ohio patients can be placed at an elevated risk for suffering from a drug injury. Other recalls are based on inherent problems with the drug itself, such as serious health problems that were not disclosed. No matter the reason for a drug’s recall, injured victim’s retain the right to pursue action against a manufacturer or distributor of a defective medication that caused them to suffer serious injury and incur monetary damages.
Source: FindLaw, “Why Drugs Get Pulled from the Market“, Accessed on Aug. 19, 2015
