![[Vic Terry, P.C.]](images/lovt.gif){kind=small}
Dallas, Texas USA
Specializing in helping people since 1961
LEGAL INFORMATION REGARDING THE ANTI-INFLAMATORY DRUG ARAVA®
Brought to you by The Law Offices Of Vic Terry
IF
YOU OR A MEMBER OF YOUR FAMILY HAS TAKEN
THE ANTI-INFLAMATORY DRUG ARAVA®
AND SUFFERED
SERIOUS SIDE EFFECTS
YOU MAY HAVE A CLAIM AGAINST THE
MANUFACTURER
On March 28, 2002, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen issued a petition to the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington D.C., requesting that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) immediately recall ARAVA®. Since it was introduced to the market in the United States in 1998, there have been approximately 1.5 million prescriptions written for Arava®.
ARAVA® is the brand name of lenflunomide, an anti-inflammatory prescription drug used to treat the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and is manufactured and marketed by Aventis Corporation.
Public Citizen states in the petition that severe adverse side effects of this drug include liver toxicity, liver damage and liver failure. Based on reports made to the FDA, since ARAVA® was approved in 1998, it has been linked with at least 130 cases of severe liver damage and liver toxicity, including 56 hospitalizations and 12 deaths. Public Citizen said it also found reports of lymphoma and drug-induced hypertension in people treated with Arava as well as skin, blood and gastrointestinal reactions serious enough to cause hospitalization. Additionally, Arava® has been associated with 12 cases of the life-threatening auto-immune disease Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. According to Public Citizen Arava® remains in body tissues for an extremely long time, so that even if patients stopped the drug after an adverse reaction started, the damage could continue to affect them for months.
Last year in Europe, after similar serious reactions, the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products issued an urgent warning to patients and physicians about the drug's toxicity.
Public Citizen states that since 1998, Arava® has been linked to six times more cases of fatal liver toxicity and 13 times more reports of hypertension than methotrexate, a drug commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. In clinical trials, ARAVA was less or equally effective as methotrexate.
"When there are other treatments that are more effective and don't endanger patients as much as this drug, there is absolutely no reason for the FDA to keep Arava® on the market", commented Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group.
Legal Background: Potential Claims and Damages
Claims filed by persons injured after ingesting prescription drugs with undisclosed dangerous side effects typically include claims for negligence, strict liability for failure to warn, strict liability for a defective product, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty and unjust enrichment. Damages sought against by injured patients or, in the case of the patient's death, the surviving spouse or family members include general and compensatory damages for:
We have represented hundreds of persons injured by dangerous prescription drugs, including hundreds of patients prescribed the diet drugs known as Fen-Phen, in federal and state courts across America. In the Fen-Phen lawsuits, the federal court hearing the case against American Home Products Corporation, the manufacturer of diet drugs Pondimin and Redux, approved a settlement valued at $4.75 billion. The settlement involves approximately six million U.S. consumers who used Pondimin and/or Redux, for any length of time, alone or in combination with phentermine.
Statutes of Limitation Notice
Persons seeking to preserve any potential legal claims for allegedly dangerous and/or defective medications should contact an experienced personal injury attorney immediately because all states have mandatory time periods within which lawsuits must be filed, called Statutes of Limitation. Your claims may be forever barred if you do not act within this pre-determined time frame. The Statute of Limitations in the State of Texas to file a personal injury claim is two years.
