While there are many theories of liability in Reglan lawsuits, one seems constant – that makers knew about the drug's dangers, but failed to warn patients – especially those patients who openly used the drug for many years and are now suffering the consequences.
Reglan Injury Lawsuits Allege Fraud, Failure To Warn & More
The theories of liability in Reglan injury lawsuits can actually differ depending on what state you are in since certain product liability laws relating to prescription drugs vary from state to state. Some of theories include strict product liability, negligence, failure to warn, breach of express and implied warranty, fraud, misrepresentation, breach of various state unfair trade practices acts and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Long Term Reglan Use Dangerous
According to Reglan injury lawyers, there have been a number of Reglan manufacturers over the years who allegedly knew about the drug's dangers, but kept that information to themselves. In fact, there were warnings about Tardive Dyskinesia before the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) required a black box warning on all metaclopramide drugs in 2009.
The issue that should be of concern to patients is whether the warnings given earlier adequately reflected the dangers that were known or were scientifically knowable at the time. A big problem is that 30 per cent of patients taking Reglan have been on the drug for a year or more – much longer than the 4 to 12 week parameter under which it was initially approved by the FDA.
While Tardive Dyskinesia can occur at any time within the drug cycle, the longer a patient is on Reglan the greater the possibility of developing the involuntary dysfunction that can last a lifetime. While the labeling has referred to the possibility of Tardive Dyskinesia as a potential side effect, the manufacturer claims that its appearance is rare. Yet two studies have found that 27 - 29 per cent of long-term users of Reglan have developed Tardive Dyskinesia.
Reglan Litigation Addressing Other Matters
Litigation surrounding Reglan addresses other matters as well, including:
These are all questions which are being addressed in the ongoing Reglan litigation, but Reglan injury lawyers say that patients should certainly expect that any company that manufactures a drug would perform thorough and adequate research concerning its effects and that it would not market a dangerous drug–especially when other, safer alternatives were readily available.