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Harmful Drugs
The law firm of Saunders & Walker represents patients who have suffered injury or illness after taking harmful drugs—medications that pharmaceutical companies did know or should have known were dangerous. We’ve helped a diverse set of clients file lawsuits against drug companies over a range of harmful products. Below you will find our full list of pending and open investigations:
Current Saunders & Walker Cases
Belviq and Belviq XR: Issues, Risks, and Lawsuits
In the United States, obesity has become a serious epidemic. To help combat this, numerous medications have been developed over the years to assist with weight loss. Unfortunately, several such drugs have had to be pulled from the market due to serious health risks. In early 2020, Belviq became one of those medications.
Prevacid Lawsuit Cases
An estimated 15.1 to 30% of Americans suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).¹ Many such individuals have sought medical help for their condition and been prescribed an antacid medication to treat symptoms. Prevacid has long been a popular drug for this purpose, but now patients are filing lawsuits alleging that the drug has caused serious harm.
Zantac Lawsuit Cases
Zantac has been a well-known and supposedly reputable medication for years, and it has long been available both over-the-counter and by prescription in both brand name and generic forms. Millions of Americans have turned to the drug for help with heartburn, but some have alleged that there is a dangerous link between Zantac and cancer.
Proton Pump Inhibitors: Nexium Prilosec and Prevacid
These highly advertised antacid and gastric reflux drugs are fraudulently marketed to hide the risk of kidney disease and failure. They are advertised as daily medications for chronic heartburn and esophageal reflux disease, GERD. However, in the small print in the packaging label, it reveals that the drugs can only be taken for 14 day periods 3 times a year. More than that increases the risk of kidney failure. These drugs are marketed as Prilosec, Prilosec OTC, Prevacid, Prevacid 24-hour, Aciphex, Protonix, Nexium. We are actively filing these lawsuits now and there are time limits to file a case so please contact us immediately if you have kidney failure after long-term use of these drugs.
Taxotere Cancer Drug Causing Permanent Hair Loss
Taxotere is a breast cancer drug that does not work better that other cancer drugs, but does have an additional risk. Taxotere is causing permanent hair loss in patients while other similar drugs may cause only temporary hair loss. There is no reason for any patient to be subjected to the risk of permanent hair loss that is not necessary. Misleading marketing is the only reason that this drug is still on the market. We are now actively filing Taxotere lawsuits.
SGLT- 2 Inhibitors for type 2 diabetes that can cause acute kidney injury and increase risk of ketoacidosis and limb amputation. These drug are fraudulently marketed and hide the dangers and over promise benefits. Injury to patients and lawsuits are rapidly increasing.
Invokana, Farxiga, and Xigduo XR Diabetes Drugs Causing Kidney Failure and Amputations
SGLT- 2 Inhibitors for type 2 diabetes that can cause acute kidney injury and increase risk of ketoacidosis and limb amputation. These drug are fraudulently marketed and hide the dangers and over promise benefits. Injury to patients and lawsuits are rapidly increasing.
Zofran
Children of mothers who took Zofran during pregnancy have been born with birth defects such as cleft palate and heart defects. If your child was born with cleft palate or heart defects after the mother took Zofran in pregnancy, contact our law firm today.
Xarelto, Pradaxa and Eliquis Blood Thinner Injuries
These drugs are alternative blood thinners to coumadin or warfarin. These drugs are falsely marketed to be usable without the cumbersome blood testing needed for coumadin or warfarin. However, without blood testing, users of Xarelato and Pradaxa have suffered from serious bleeding injuries sometimes leading to brain damage or death. These lawsuits were coordinated together in December 2014.
Androgel
A wave of lawsuits has been filed against the manufacturers of AndroGel, a prescription drug for low testosterone (called “low T” in television advertising). Recent medical studies have concluded that AndroGel can double or triple the risk of heart attack.
Axiron
Axiron can double or even triple the risk of a heart attack. Other possible side effects include swelling of your ankles feet or body, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing while you sleep, and blood clots in your legs, which can include pain, swelling, or redness of your legs.
Risperdal
The manufacturer Johnson & Johnson did not adequately warn doctors and patients that Risperdal can cause gynecomastia, which is the development of female breasts in males. This condition is highly embarrassing for young boys who frequently are teased and bullied by other children for this condition.
OxyContin and Oxycodone
OxyContin and Oxycodone are prescription painkillers used for moderate to high pain relief associated with injuries and bursitis, dislocations, fractures, neuralgia, arthritis, and lower back pain. These drugs are highly addictive narcotics. The manufacturer had an organized campaign for many years to convince doctors they were under medicating their patients and that addiction was not a serious problem. Many doctors liberally prescribed more OxyContin and Oxycodone. Profit-seeking “pill mill” doctors opened clinics that feed the addiction epidemic that followed. Some users turned to street heroin when “pill mill” clinics were shut down in many states. This is one of the worst examples of the pharmaceutical industry putting profits ahead of safety.
Actos
Actos, a pioglitazone-based drug, is widely used by Type 2 diabetes patients. With above-60 market share, the diabetes pill was among the top 10 most-selling drugs in the United States in 2008 and 2009, Actos has been implicated in hundreds of cases of bladder cancer. There were some large jury verdicts against Takeda, the manufacturer of this drug and then most of these lawsuits were settled.
Topamax
The manufacturers and marketers of Topamax may be liable to pay damages to parents of children who were born with birth defects if the mothers were taking the drug Topamax during pregnancy.
Zyprexa
Zyprexa is an antipsychotic medication. It works by changing the actions of chemicals in the brain. Zyprexa is used to treat the symptoms of psychotic conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It was marketed off label to children and adolescents who suffered huge weight gains and diabetes as a result.
Ortho-Evra® Birth Control Patch
This site is designed to provide information about the Ortho-Evra® Birth Control Patch, the injuries and deaths that Ortho-Evra® has caused, and the legal claims and lawsuits pursued against the drug’s manufacturers. Most of these cases have been settled.
Vioxx
The information provided on this website is designed to provide the consumer with important information about the serious health risks and the legal claims that may stem from the aggressive marketing, prescription, and use of Vioxx (rofecoxib), an arthritis and acute pain medication. Vioxx has exposed those who took the drug to serious injury or death since its entry into the market in 1999. Vioxx significantly increase the risk of heart attack or stroke. This drug has been off the market for a number of years and all of the lawsuits have been settled.
Fen-Phen, Redux & Pondimin
This site is designed to provide information about the health risks and the legal claims that may arise from the widespread marketing, prescription, and use of diet drugs such as Fen-Phen, Redux, and Pondimin. This drug litigation was a true class action lawsuit combined with a multidistrict litigation coordination. The majority of these cases are settled but individual cases of pulmonary arterial hypertension can arise many years after the use of these drugs. PAH or PPH is an incurable disease that can require a heart or lung transplant and can be fatal.
Ephedra Alkaloids
This website is designed to provide information about the health risks, legal claims, and lawsuits that may arise from the use of ephedra alkaloids, known in traditional Chinese medicine as ma huang. Herbal ephedra is sold in about 200 dietary supplements. These natural supplements can cause high blood pressure and stroke.
Baycol
This site is designed to provide information about the drug Baycol®, the injuries and deaths that Baycol has caused, and the legal claims and lawsuits pursued against the drug’s manufacturer, Bayer. Baycol was a failed cholesterol management drug that caused kidney injuries called rhabdomyolysis. It was removed from the market and the lawsuits have all been settled.
Bextra
This site is designed to provide information about the drug Bextra®, the injuries that Bextra has caused, and the legal claims and lawsuits pursued against the drug’s manufacturer. This Cox-2 painkiller has been associated with a higher heart attack risk.
Celebrex
This site is designed to provide information about the drug Celebrex, the injuries and deaths that Celebrex has caused, and the legal claims and lawsuits pursued against the drug’s manufacturers. This Cox-2 painkiller has been associated with a higher heart attack risk.
Rezulin
This site is designed to provide information about the drug Rezulin®, the injuries and deaths that Rezulin has caused, and the legal claims and lawsuits pursued against the drug’s manufacturers, Parke-Davis, a division of Warner-Lambert, now merged into Pfizer, Inc. This was a diabetes drug that caused kidney failure. These cases are all settled or resolved.
Drug Class Action Lawsuits
When a number of patients suffer adverse effects from a single drug, consumer drug safety lawyers representing them including Saunders & Walker file class action lawsuits or individual cases that are coordinated together in a national multidistrict litigation. People who have suffered adverse effects often assume that all of these lawsuits are class action lawsuits against the pharmaceutical companies but, in fact, most of these are individual lawsuits that are coordinated together for pretrial management by the federal courts.
Should You File a Lawsuit?
Pharmaceutical executives and the companies they represent should never be allowed to put profits ahead of safety. Lawsuits against drug companies can hold them accountable for wrongdoing and provide needed monetary compensation to injured consumers.
The bad drug list is long and growing. If you or someone you love has suffered adverse effects as a result of taking medication that is on the bad prescription drugs list or that has been implicated in previous drug class action lawsuits, you may have the right to file a lawsuit. In order to determine whether you have grounds for legal action, you should contact Saunders & Walker as soon as possible.
Our drug lawyers have experience filing both mass tort class action suits as well as individual suits. Over the years, we’ve handled many drug lawsuit settlements related to multidistrict individual cases and class action cases, and we continue to work on behalf of clients who have suffered harm due to poorly tested or mislabeled drugs.