Being addicted, overdosing or even dying from drug abuse isn’t necessarily your fault. The pharmaceutical industry is a multibillion-dollar business. Both doctors and drug manufacturers are all about making money in one form or another from selling consumers prescription drugs.

Sometimes, drug manufacturers can be held legally liable for a person becoming chemically dependent on their products. A plaintiff who suffered damages may be able to bring a product liability lawsuit against a drug manufacturer who introduced a dangerous or defective drug to the market.

There are several instances in which a plaintiff may hold a drug manufacturer liable for damages.

A drug may be defective in its design. It may pose an unreasonable risk to consumers because of the way a manufacturer produces it. If the pharmaceutical company purposely ignores the risks associated with the drug, then foreseeable harm may occur. Plaintiffs are seldom successful in winning such lawsuits because defendants are often able to show that the drug has some safe uses.

The manufacturing of the drug may be defective. A production mistake, such as introducing a contaminant when formulating the drug, may make it dangerous to consumers.

A plaintiff may also sue a drug manufacturer if they can prove that they failed to warn consumers of all the known potential risks. Plaintiffs that have experienced addiction, overdose and other adverse side effects as a result of taking opioids and other prescription painkillers have filed lawsuits accusing drug manufacturers of failing to disclose a drug’s side effects including their potentially addictive properties.

You may think that drug manufacturers wouldn’t be allowed to introduce a drug on the market if it had the potential to be contaminated, injuring you or becoming addicted to it. Drug manufacturers introduce both over-the-counter and prescription medications that pose a whole host of dangers on the market every day, though.

Fortunately, there are legal remedies that you can pursue here in Louisiana when unfortunate events like this occur. An attorney can advise your options for recovering damages in your Baton Rouge case if you’ve suffered losses.