Each year hundreds of new drugs enter the $60 billion per year prescription drug industry promising to improve our lives, but every year 200,000 Americans die and numerous more are injured as a result of false and misleading claims by pharmaceutical companies. Despite the series of clinical trials and tests conducted on prescription drugs designed to protect the public, many drugs are causing serious injuries. According to the General Accounting Office, 51 percent of FDA-approved drugs have major adverse effects that aren't detected until after the general public uses them.

Prescription drugs are regulated and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Under current FDA regulations, new drugs are approved in half the time they were 15 years ago. This is because under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the FDA can approve new drugs for marketing without long-term testing if it will benefit the public interest. 21 C.F.R. 310.303 (1997). Unfortunately, the current incidents of prescription drug injuries suggest that the public's best interests are not being served. In many instances, drugs are recalled within a year due to deaths or serious adverse effects by users. A number of drugs are aggressively marketed by pharmaceutical companies, even when they know that their drugs could result in serious side effects or deaths. Because side effects for all medications are seriously underreported -- some experts estimate that at best one in 10 are actually reported to the FDA -- the real danger and number of injuries related to prescription drugs may be significantly higher.

Fortunately, the law provides you with rights. Under 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, prescription drug manufacturers can be held strictly liable for selling products in a defective and unreasonably dangerous condition, even though they may have exercised the utmost care in the preparation and sale of their product. A product may be defective or unreasonably dangerous in several ways. One way is if the manufacturer failed to warn consumers of potential injury risks associated with the product. A product might also be defective or unreasonably dangerous if it was improperly designed (i.e. inappropriate chemical composition or dosage). Lastly, the product may also be defective if an error occurred during the manufacturing process. A prescription drug contains a manufacturing defect when it departs from its intended design even though it was carefully prepared and marketed. Manufacturer liability may also extend to what your physician tells you about the prescription drug.

In recent years, the billion dollar dietary supplement industry has fallen under increasing attack. The FDA regulates dietary supplements under a different set of regulations than prescription drugs. Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), a dietary supplement manufacturer is responsible for making sure a dietary supplement is safe before it is marketed. Generally, manufacturers do not have to register or get approval from the FDA before producing or selling dietary supplements. All manufacturers have to do is to make sure that product label information is truthful and not misleading.

Although recent government regulations of dietary supplements have created some safeguards, that does not prevent dangerous supplements from entering the market. Dietary supplement manufacturers have already found themselves at the center of lawsuits. One of the first dietary supplements to cause a litigation stir was L-Tryptophan, a sleep and depression aid. After users of L-Tryptophan began reporting serious side-effects, media reports linked the drug to 37 deaths and between 1,500 and 10,000 illnesses from 1989 to 1990. Other herbal supplements and remedies have also fallen under fire as well. One of the more recent dietary supplements under increase scrutiny is ephedra. Cases of death and illness attributed to ephedra are on the rise. Some claim ephedra can cause conditions ranging from hypertension, palpitations, neuropathy and myopathy to psychosis, stroke, seizures and death. Currently, there are numerous pending lawsuits involving ephedra, including some that are seeking certification as class actions.

The growing popularity of dietary supplements in the United States will inevitably lead to increased litigation, especially in the wake of intense media coverage of cases alleging adverse effects and deaths. If you or a loved one has suffered an injury as a result of taking any drug or supplement, don't delay! You may have a valid claim and be entitled to compensation for your injuries, but a lawsuit must be filed before the statute of limitations expires.