DANGEROUS DRUGS

A Story of Greed

From 1993 to 1998, the pharmaceutical manufacturer Johnson & Johnson made over one billion dollars in sales from the prescription heartburn medication Propulsid.  Johnson & Johnson knew hundreds of patients were dying from the side effects.  By 1995, the Food and Drug Administration had received reports of 18 patients who had developed serious heart problems as a result of taking the medication, but within 18 months the number had grown to 57.  It soon became clear that children were at particular risk.  Over the next three years, more than 100 infants were injured and at least 24 proven dead due to Propulsid. 

Johnson & Johnson considered halting the sale of the drug to premature infants in the U.S., but senior company executives overruled it.  Documents from lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson showed the company did not conduct the studies recommended by federal regulators and did not publish other studies that would have warned physicians of the risks associated with Propulsid.

The Moral?

The FDA does not examine or test any drugs, but instead simply leaves it up to drug manufacturers to vouch for the safety of their products.  Even though federal agencies have left the fox to guard the henhouse, Americans are standing up and using our legal system to fight back and defeat wrongdoing one case at a time.  After 300 people died and 16,000 were injured from Propulsid, our civil justice system played a vital role in bringing the truth about Johnson & Johnson’s deceptive practices to the attention of the medical community and the public.  In 2004, Johnson & Johnson was forced to pay 90 million dollars in compensation to injured patients and the families of the many who died.  Propulsid has now been discontinued in the United States.  

We can help.

BOWERSOX LAW FIRM attorney Jeffrey Bowersox has brought hundreds of defective drug cases to a just outcome, achieving compensation for victims and, with his clients, helping to make a difference in an environment where billion-dollar profits have become more important than individual lives. 

If you or your loved ones have experienced problems with a defective and harmful drug, please call us for a free consultation.  Our work on your behalf is always on a contingency fee basis, so you pay nothing unless you prevail.