In the new year, Parker Waichman LLP, hopes for increased testing, safety, and efficacy in the processes and promotions used by Big Pharma so that consumers may be confident that they are receiving safe and effective medications that were ethically developed, tested, and marketed.
Parker Waichman, a national law firm that has long been an advocate for victims of defective medications is urging the pharmaceutical industry, as we approach a new year, to step up the ways in which it develops, tests, inspects, and markets medications.
In the new year, Parker Waichman is seeking increased transparency and accountability from all drug makers, with the hope that patient welfare is made the key priority and placed before drug approval activities and profits.
The financial relationships between the pharmaceutical industry and health care have driven significant controversy. Critics of the practice, including Parker Waichman, argue that these relationships create conflicts of interest that may unduly impact research findings and prescribing practices. What’s more, the results of these practices may lead to situations in which patients are no longer the primary focus in health care decisions. When this happens, injuries may occur that leave patients poorly represented and in need of assistance in ameliorating injuries.
Sadly, however, some injuries and damage associated with today’s pharmaceutical processes are irreversible. In some cases, people never recover, or die, from the damage that is allegedly caused by a defective drug, a drug that was not appropriately tested or was never tested on the drug’s true population, a drug that was not appropriately peer-reviewed in study reports, or a drug whose adverse effects were hidden in reports or minimized in marketing, to name just a few.
We are calling on the pharmaceutical industry to improve its processes so that drugs are developed to exacting standards; studied with an eye toward efficacy, safety, and intense ethics; and marketed to reach consumers as safe products that are not associated with kickbacks, financial exchanges, and an unbalanced risk-to-benefit ratio.
Gone should be the days that drug makers market their products using marketing and promotional strategies that drive the controversial consultative relationships between drug sellers and physicians. These relationships encourage doctors to receive benefits, perks, and payments to prescribe and promote medications to patients, as well as to promote these products to their colleagues and peers.
Yes, study funding is an expensive and challenging concern, and, so too, is the business of ensuring that the proper checks and balances are in place. Physicians and physician researchers with a financial interest in the development or sale of a drug tend to be likelier to prescribe these products to their patients. There are issues with accountability when this type of medicine is practiced and it is these types of work ethics and processes that ultimately cost big money to consumers, drug makers, the insurance industry, the medical industry, and the government.
In the new year, we at Parker Waichman, are asking Big Pharma to increase its accountability, to consider the patient as the number one priority, to conduct all of the necessary research before seeking approval from federal regulators, and to always place safety before profit. Go beyond the minimal requirements, make fundamental changes, set higher standards that will be respected, and help us ensure consumers are appropriately protected when seeking medical treatment.
“Patients and physicians rely on safe and effective medical treatments,” says Gary Falkowitz, Managing Attorney at Parker Waichman LLP. “Patients and doctors need to know whether, and to what extent, certain types of treatments may be dangerous.”
Patients who are injured following the use of potentially dangerous medications may be entitled to compensation, Parker Waichman points out.
Parker Waichman LLP offers free lawsuit consultations to victims of drug injuries and side effects. For more information, please visit the firm’s Defective Drug page. Free case evaluations are also available by calling 1-800-LAW-INFO.
