Many prescription and over-the-counter medications are recalled every year by their manufacturers and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Thankfully, most of those Class III and Class II recalls are due to minor issues such as packaging and labeling errors. The people who take those medications face few, if any, serious health risks.
However, some medications pose more imminent dangers to the people who take them. They are subject to Class I recalls, which are the most serious. According to the FDA, Class I recalls indicate “a situation in which there is a reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.”
But what does reasonable probability mean? The definition of this statement can vary from drug to drug. Some recalled medications are inherently dangerous to just about everyone who takes them, while others may affect only some users. And some recalled drugs may take years to cause injuries in the people who take them, while others may put users’ health at risk immediately.
It’s difficult to determine exactly how likely each person is to suffer from a drug injury from a recalled medication. Drugs that increase the likelihood of developing cancer are often pulled from the market, but not everyone who takes those drugs will develop cancer. But other drugs, especially those that are mislabeled to the point of putting patients at risk of overdoses, can put virtually all patients who take them at risk.
If you suspect that you or someone you love suffered a drug injury, contact Ferrer Poirot Feller Daniel today. Our drug injury lawyers know what you’re going through, and we want to help you get maximum compensation.