Residents of Rochelle Park are often required to depend upon drug manufacturers to provide them with medications that are safe when taken for particular conditions. However, manufacturers need to recognize that while many medications are beneficial in resolving certain symptoms, drugs can be riddled with numerous and dangerous side effects that may outweigh the medications usefulness.

In a products liability action, a federal appeals court has recently upheld a $21.6 million dollar verdict on behalf of an injured woman brought against a pharmaceutical company. The woman was prescribed an anti-inflammatory drug called Sulindac to relieve shoulder pain, but soon after taking the drug she experienced severe burning to her skin and mucous membrane, and she is now legally blind.

Though the pharmaceutical company challenged the verdict as being excessive, one can understand why the appellate court upheld such a verdict. She has undergone more than a dozen operations to her eyes in an attempt to correct the blindness. The woman cannot engage in almost any normal activity due to the burns that covered nearly 65 percent of her body, and she has also suffered severe disfigurement to the body and face.

For individuals that suspect that they were injured while taking such medications, they may wish to discuss the matter with attorneys that have a great deal of experience in litigating defective drug type of cases. Such attorneys understand the side effects present in such medications, and they also have the ability to negotiate with a multi-million dollar corporation.

Because drug manufacturers are making such a huge profit upon these types of medications, these companies have a duty to stringently test such products for safety. No one should be required to undergo the type of suffering this woman just for taking a prescribed medication.

Source: The Republic, “First Circuit upholds largest ever verdict in NH products liability case,” by Lynne Tuohy, May 9, 2012