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Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Bextra
Lawsuit
Even prior to the announcement of the Bextra recall Pfizer Pharmaceuticals
has been the target of numerous class action suits. Pfizer now expects that
such actions will explode. And, if that worry isn't sufficient enough to
request their sorrowless apologies perhaps the circumspect investigation by
the government will supply a “heads up” warning.
They wish the courts to make a distinction between their product Bextra to
the Vioxx recall and the 140,000 Americans harmed by Vioxx. Nothing in that
case changes anything regarding the deaths by the medication Bextra, however
fewer they may be.
These cases are being held in New Orleans and the attorneys expect a great
number and long sessions. This, no doubt, will draw more people to that city
and work miracles for the economy, but their primary concern is those who
have suffered from the side effects of their medication.
Apparently there have been many who have suffered serious strokes and the
company and their attorneys are gearing up to become the center of this
nationwide litigation.
The risks of Bextra have been known for some time, and the attorneys are
glad that the product has been withdrawn from the market, and want to extend
“great sorrow for those who have suffered needlessly”( a direct quote.)
however meaningless it is now to the one who suffers.
The makers of Bextra, among many other withdrawn medications
led the FDA to conclude that the overall risk of the drug was dire enough to
be pulled from all public emanations in 2005.
There was inadequate clinical data on the cardiovascular safety of long term
users. There was also what was designated as Life-threatening skin reaction
when Bextra was taken after heart surgery which included Steven Johnson
Syndrome and epidermal necrolysis. The Drug Administration declared there
was no significant advantage to use Bextra.
Merck, along with many other medical manufacturers spent millions in
advertising their products causing the public to gain false impressions of
what the product would do. There was a surge of requests for doctors to
prescribe the drug without sufficient knowledge by the patients of the
reactive and dangerous ingredients among them: kidney failure, blood clots,
strokes and interaction with drugs already being used. One can only
reiterate that doctors either have to learn and stay abreast of the
medicines they prescribe or manufacturers of medicines need to become moral
in their dealings. After all it is a matter of life and death. Perhaps it
would work if the courts referred to the deaths as murder and harden the
dialog to reflect the actual dangers for continuing to dispense “killer”
drugs.
Invariably people began to question the maker about their reactions
suspicious that Merck knew about them, but failed to admit it, or warn the
public. Now the great surge of court trials which have already begun , and
all those involved anticipate grand sums of money to follow in settlements.
One would guess so, since their own attorneys have expressed their deep
sorry for so much “needless suffering”. Off goes the plaintiff's hat and on
goes the defendant's hat as attorneys rename their stance and get downright
mean to win because they, too, recognize the grand fees they will receive.
There's just no real justification for anyone.
Prempro and Premarin
How can women feel safe today? While taken prescribed medicines for their
ailments those able to operate a computer mouse should tremble to find that
Wyeth the pharmaceutical manufacturer for Prempro and Premarin is under the
court gavel in more than 5000 cases.
To relieve symptoms of one ailment one risks her life to the other deadly
diseases from the added chemicals in the pills. Does that make sense?
Why would scientists consider such a thing? Especially knowing the
possibilities that trading the original symptoms could set the stage for
cancer, a more deadly ailment.
What Wyeth has essentially done is: assume that women needing either of
these drugs are pharmacists and/or capable of understanding that breast
cancer could result from such use. It would appear that these days everyone
is going to have to become an amateur druggist, because in today's crowded
drug counters, no pharmacist is going to have the time to give a course on
the medications they dispense.
One can not help but ask the question: are all these chemists working in all
of these pharmaceutical manufacturing companies really qualified to do what
they do, or is it just a case that the companies want to get their “new”
medicines out before the next company finds the final egedient before they
do? As egregious as the entire question regarding deaths and new ailments
caused by medicines is one is not so blind as to not notice that every minor
blip rushes some company into sending out a pill to take care of it. And are
these chemists really plu-perfectly sure that adding another ingredient will
not interact with the other medications a patient is using? There are
elderly people who take as many as fourteen to twenty pills a day – how can
they intermingle without complications? Everything that goes into the body
has to go someplace and the truth happens to be: -they go all through the
body and react on every organ in some fashion.
There was a study begun in 2002 stating that Prempro and Premarin had high
risks. They eventually added a warning to the bottle containing the pills.
When a doctor writes such prescriptions he/she should inform their patients
of the risks involved - and with emphasis. Some people just don't listen.
However, it may well be that the doctor has no such knowledge either.
Frankly, everyone is at the mercy of not only his personal physician, but
the pharmaceutical companies and having such great faith in our doctors we
have no where else to go for medical help. Women's bodies are infinitely
more complex than the male and there should be extra care in the
construction of medications for females.
Instead the company's lawyers have simply created an assembly line approach
as they did during the tobacco trials. Such trials question whether drug
makers and the FDA really pay adequate attention to patient safety. There
has been over 65,000 product liability lawsuits filed against prescription
drug makers.
Unsatisfied with the enormity of profits manufacturers already earn they
rush to put still other medicines on the market and all much too quickly to
warrant that they have been tested sufficiently to insure their safety.
The number of complaints from patients isn't likely to slow, given the
millions of consumers and the ready and availability of skilled attorneys
who have found a specialty in law that insures a lifetime of income in the
adverse reactions caused by an infinite number of new medications surfeiting
the every means of advertising.
Drug companies seem to feel the minuscule warning albeit almost always
printed in RED is all that is needed. But there are never complete and
precise consequences specific enough to actually warn. Besides, didn't your
trusted physician prescribe it? Surely he/she knows the dangers that could
result.
Drug makers learn to feel safe as they dispense their products and it
appears all of them feel secure once a specific court trial against a
complainant is decided in their favor. Even the settled cases where certain
amounts of money is offered in settlement gives manufacturers additional
certainty that it's not the fault of their product, it's the client himself.
Wyeth's settlements, as large as $21 billion, further softens the tendency
for them to continue their normal procedures, and one might add their lack
of conscience.
Some medical houses have further implied quite the same attitude by changing
such warnings on their labels of suicide from “suicide” and “suicide
attempts”. Understanding that difference is a puzzle indeed.
Well, “suicide gestures” may not hold as heavy an omen of great harm, but it
certainly should make everyone wary to immediately question their doctor –
or refuse the drug outright.
Another Bextra Lawsuits Article
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