When your doctor recommends a prescription medication, you expect it to be effective and safe. Unfortunately, simply because a drug is FDA approved, does not necessarily make it safe.
A handful of popular prescription medications have been subject to widespread recalls in recent years. Such recalls have caused injury to those taking the drug and put others at risk of injury. But why?
Contamination is a driving force behind many prescription recalls
The large-scale production of pharmaceutical compounds comes with many logistical challenges. Ensuring purity is one of many important factors that a pharmaceutical company must consider when they release a new drug or start mass-producing it.
Unfortunately, not all drug companies will ensure the necessary standard of purity and safety for medications.
Several of the largest medication recalls in recent years was due to chemical contamination. The use of certain chemical processes to manufacture active ingredients have led to dangerous secondary compounds left behind in the final product. Prescription heartburn medications were recalled in the last few years because of the presence of a human carcinogen in higher than allowed amounts.
Does a recall prevent a defective drug claim?
When drug manufacturers release contaminated or dangerous drugs into the public domain for consumer use – even inadvertently – they could still be liable if such drugs cause injury or death to a consumer. Simply recalling the drug will not eliminate a manufacturer’s legal responsibility to those it harms.
Consumers should take note of active recalls in order to ensure the drugs they take are safe for use and not placed on the recall list.