If you are like a lot of people in Louisiana, when you think about medical errors related to pharmaceutical drugs, you might initially think about being given the wrong medication or an incorrect dose of a medication. These are some examples of drug errors than can harm patients. However, there are also errors that may begin far before a medication ever makes it to a pharmacy or to your home.

In some cases, there may be a problem with the drug itself, with the way in which it is manufactured or even the way it is labelled. These are some of the factors that may contribute to a medication being recalled. The United States Food and Drug Administration explains that drugs may be voluntarily recalled by the manufacturers. There are also times when the FDA may step in and require a pharmaceutical manufacturer to issue a recall.

There are three classes of recalls with a Class III being the least serious. This recall is issued if labelling or manufacturing problems are identified. Class II recalls pertain to drugs that may have a small risk of serious problems or might cause some temporary condition or side effect to patients. Class I recalls are for situations in which a high likelihood of serious problems related to the drug has been identified. 

If you would like to learn more about the types of drug recalls that may happen and how you can get help if you or a loved one have been injured due to the use of a potentially defective medication, please feel free to visit the pharmaceutical errors page of our Louisiana medical malpractice website.