Kansas City Dangerous Prescription Drug Lawyers 1-866-668-9241

Personal Injury Attorneys: Dangerous Prescription Drugs

Kansas City - Nationwide

Each year, thousands of Americans suffer diseases, side effects and increased risks caused by prescription drugs they thought would help them. We represent these victims of defective drugs against major pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors. We have litigated several large scale class action lawsuits as well as several mass tort actions for those individuals that were personally injured or killed as a result of their use of prescription drugs.

Prempro

Prempro is often prescribed for the relief of menopause symptoms through hormone replacement therapy (HRT). The drug contains a combination of estrogen and progesterone. Studies have shown the benefits of Prempro use are often outweighed by the potential side effects and risks. These include breast cancer, stroke, heart disease and blood clots. Sadly, many women who trusted Prempro to help them have been injured by the drug.

On July 9, 2002, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute announced that it had stopped a major clinical trial of the risks and benefits of Prempro. The study was to continue until 2005. However, data revealed that, after an average follow-up period of 5.2 years, there were marked increases in invasive breast cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke and pulmonary embolism in patients taking Prempro compared to women taking a placebo.

Specific study findings for the Prempro group compared to placebo group include the following:

41% increase in strokes

29% increase in heart attacks

100% increase in blood clots

22% increase in total cardiovascular disease

26% increase in breast cancer

Claude Lenfant, M.D., Director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, noted: "We have long sought the answer to the question: Does postmenopausal hormone therapy prevent heart disease and, if it does, what are the risks? The bottom-line answer from [this study] is that this combined form of hormone therapy is unlikely to benefit the heart. The cardiovascular and cancer risks of estrogen plus progestin outweigh any benefits--and a 26 percent increase in breast cancer risk is too high a price to pay, even if there were a heart benefit. Similarly, the risks outweigh the benefits of fewer hip fractures." Garnet Anderson, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator and Biostatistician, added that "[t]he increased risk of invasive breast cancer among women taking estrogen plus progestin surpassed the disease-specific criterion defined in the monitoring plan."

We continue to work with Prempro injury victims. Our goals are to inform Prempro consumers of the increased risks and to seek compensation for Prempro users for personal injuries and death caused by the drug.

Vioxx

On September 30, 2004, Merck & Co. removed VIOXX® from the market due to studies revealing users suffered increased rate of heart attacks and strokes. Blood clots and kidney failure have also been associated with the use of VIOXX®, according to studies that have appeared in several medical journals.

We continue to work with VIOXX® injury victims. Our goals are to inform VIOXX® consumers of the increased risks and to seek compensation for VIOXX® users for personal injuries and death. In addition to the mass tort actions for individual injuries, the lawyers at Stueve Siegel Hanson have also filed a consumer class action for those individuals who purchased VIOXX® in the State of Missouri.

If you or someone you know has taken VIOXX® and would like further information, please talk to the lawyers at Stueve Siegel Hanson.

Celebrex

Since 1998, Celebrex has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and osteo-arthritis. However, like VIOXX®, news recently emerged that Celebrex also was found to increase the rate of heart attacks and strokes. The news concerning Celebrex emerged from a study sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, which was testing the effect of Celebrex on certain tumors. What it discovered instead was that patients who took Celebrex were more than twice as likely to suffer heart attacks. In a second study, elderly patients showed a fourfold risk of suffering heart attacks or strokes than patients who used a placebo.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on August 3, 2005, finalized a "black box" warning for Celebrex concerning these increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.We continue to work with Celebrex injury victims. Our goals are to inform Celebrex consumers of the increased risks and to seek compensation for Celebrex users for personal injuries and death.

If you or someone you know has taken Celebrex and would like further information, please talk to the lawyers at Stueve Siegel Hanson.

Bextra

Bextra, like VIOXX and Celebrex, is a prescription pain reliever. Like other Cox II inhibitors, recent studies show that patients who have taken Bextra show an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Bextra has also been linked to a very rare condition called Stevens Johnson Syndrome. Stevens Johnson Syndrome is an extreme allergic reaction to a chemical. Symptoms include: blistering, fever, swelling and lesions of gums, tongue or lips and sores in the genital tract.

We continue to work with Bextra injury victims. Our goals are to inform Bextra consumers of the increased risks and to seek compensation for Bextra users for personal injuries and death.

If you or someone you know has taken Bextra and would like further information, please talk to the lawyers at Stueve Siegel Hanson.

Zyprexa

This antipsychotic medication, approved for the treatment of schizophrenia has also recently been linked with Type II Diabetes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now requiring a warning on Zyprexa saying that it is linked with Type II Diabetes, hyperglycemia and other blood sugar disorders.

Zyprexa's link with Type II Diabetes was initially disclosed in May 2002. At that time, Britain's Medicines Control Agency noted that several patients who were taking Zyprexa had developed diabetes-related complications. In the newsletter from that agency, the governmental report found that Zyprexa "can adversely affect blood glucose."

We continue to work with Zyprexa injury victims. Our goals are to inform Zyprexa consumers of the increased risks and to seek compensation for Zyprexa users for personal injuries and death.

If you or someone you know has taken Zyprexa and would like further information, please talk to the lawyers at Stueve Siegel Hanson.

Tussionex

Tussionex Extended-Release Suspension is a prescription cough-suppressant/antihistamine combination prescribed to treat coughs and upper-respiratory symptoms of colds and allergies. The FDA just recently issued a public health advisory to alert patients that death and life-threatening side effects have been reported in patients using Tussionex. The reports indicate that doctors have inappropriately prescribed Tussionex for patients less than 6 years old and at doses more frequent than every 12 hours.

We continue to work with Tussionex injury victims. Our goals are to inform Tussionex consumers of the increased risks and to seek compensation for Tussionex users for personal injuries and death.

If you or someone you know has taken Tussionex and would like further information, please talk to the lawyers at Stueve Siegel Hanson.

Heparin

Heparin is a commonly used blood thinning prescription drug. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently confirmed that the number of deaths linked to Heparin had risen from 4 o 21.Investigators have been unable to identify the source of the problem but are focusing their attention on Chinese plants that supplied the active ingredient of Heparin, produced by Baxter International.

The CDC was first notified of adverse effects caused by Heparin on January 7, 2008, by the Missouri Department of Health of an allergic-type reaction (difficulty breathing, nausea, vomiting, excessive sweating and plummeting blood pressure that can lead to life-threatening shock) among pediatric hemodialysis patients. The CDC then solicited reports of similar allergic-type reactions from Heparin among hemodialysis patients nationally.

In all, the FDA has received 785 Heparin-linked reports of adverse events from Heparin produced by Baxter Healthcare. The majority of the reactions to Heparin resolved after interruption of the dialysis session or treatment with diphenhydramine (Benadryl) or steroids. The CDC is investigating 19 deaths and hundreds of reactions. Since release of the CDC's report that 19 deaths had been linked to Heparin since January 1, 2008, it received word of another 27 deaths.

We continue to work with Heparin injury victims. Our goals are to inform Heparin consumers of the increased risks and to seek compensation for Heparin users for personal injuries and death.

If you or someone you know has taken Heparin and would like further information, please talk to the lawyers at Stueve Siegel Hanson.

Dangerous Prescription Drug Questions?

If you have experienced unusual side effects or suffered an injury, or a loved one has, after taking one of the drugs listed above, your first step should be to seek proper medical attention from a doctor. Your second step should be to call Stueve Siegel Hanson toll free at 1-866-668-9241 or 816-298-9847 for a free and confidential initial consultation regarding defective drugs and your legal rights.

Case Results (Click here for more results)

Dangerous Prescription Drug Class Action
Plubell, et al. v. Merck & Co., Inc.,

Stueve Siegel Hanson represents a Missouri statewide class action on behalf of all Missouri purchasers of Vioxx, the Cox-2 pain reliever that Merck pulled off the market after the FDA identified several misleading sales practices used by Merck to market the product.

Dangerous Prescription Drug Wrongful Death and Catastrophic Injury
Individual Vioxx Personal Injury Litigation,

Stueve Siegel Hanson is prosecuting several individual catastrophic injury cases alleging various Plaintiffs' ingestion of the prescription drug Vioxx, the Cox-2 pain reliever that Merck pulled off the market after the FDA identified several misleading sales practices used by Merck to market the product, caused various heart attacks and strokes, including wrongful deaths as a result.