Useful Tips for Protecting Your Recovery After a Pharmaceutical Injury

If you’ve been hurt by a medication or medical device, then you need to know what you can do to protect your physical and financial recoveries. You need to know whom you can trust, what you can do, and what you should not do as soon as possible.

Six Tips to Get You Started

You don’t need to have all of the answers on the day you find out about your injury. However, it is important to understand the following things so that you don’t make a mistake that could hurt your recovery. Specifically, you should understand:

1. What to Do If You Are Experiencing Drug or Medical Device Side Effects. If you have been hurt by your prescription medication, then you should see your doctor, preserve evidence, and contact an attorney for help as soon as possible.
2. What Not to Do After a Drug or Medical Device Injury. Failing to get medical attention, failing to take legal action, or trying to negotiate with the pharmaceutical company on your own can be serious mistakes that penalize your fair recovery.
3. The Role of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA approves new drugs for sale in the United States. Before a drug can be approved, the pharmaceutical manufacturer must typically prove that the medication is safe or that is substantially similar to another drug that already has FDA approval. After a medication is approved, the FDA will accept reports of adverse reactions and may issue safety alerts or recalls. The FDA will not, however, help an individual who has been hurt by a medication recover damages.
4. What Drug Recalls Mean. A pharmaceutical company may voluntarily recall a drug or the FDA may recall a medication. The FDA may use different classes of recalls to temporarily take a medication off the market, to take only specific batches of medication off the market, or to withdraw a medication from the market.
5. Whether Pharmaceutical Companies Can Be Trusted. Pharmaceutical companies are in business to make money. Accordingly, their primary goal is to sell as many prescriptions as possible as quickly as possible; it is not to ensure your safety or to pay your damages if you’ve been hurt.
6. The Truth About Pharmaceutical Class Actions. There are certain myths about class action cases that are simply not true. It is important to understand the truth so that you can make an informed decision about pursuing a recovery.

These tips can help you get started protecting your rights, but you will still have to take action in order to recover damages. Your time to take action is limited by the Illinois Statute of Limitations. Accordingly, we encourage you to contact an experienced pharmaceutical injury lawyer via this website or by phone at any time.