Personal Injury Law

Drug Manufacturer Seeks to Split Up Darvon and Darvocet Lawsuits

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

This blog has recently shared information about the growing number of lawsuits filed on behalf of patients who suffered because of complications from the medications Darvocet and Darvon.

News published in About Lawsuits now suggests that the manufacturer of those dangerous drugs, Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals, is attempting to block all efforts that would consolidate and centralize those lawsuits. Multidistrict litigation, or MDL, is common when product liability cases like this one occur. It is designed to avoid the wasteful repeated efforts of discovery and avoid inconsistent rulings on the various claims across the country. Thousands of victims are expected to file lawsuits in all parts of the country following the recall of these products.

The medication became one of the country?s most popular prescriptions in the late 1970s as a pain medication. Concerns were raised about the drug?s safety as early as 1978. However, it wasn?t until 2006 that an FDA advisory panel began investigating the safety of the medication following public advocacy claims regarding the skyrocketing death toll linked to the drugs. Two year later Public Citizen, a consumer rights organization, filed a lawsuit against the FDA for its failure to properly take action against the drug.

The FDA finally changed course from previous pronouncements in late November of last year, asking the drug makers to pull the medication from the market.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on January 19, 2011 (boomark / email).