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Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorney Blog | Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis LLP
Philadelphia Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice Attorneys serving the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania areas. Pomerantz, Perlberger and Lewis have extensive experience with serious injuries as a result of someone else's negligence.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Pain Patch Gets Second Safety Warning
Johnson & Johnson's Duragesic pain patch and its generic equivalents got a second safety warning from U.S. regulators, who said improper use continues to cause deaths and life-threatening breathing difficulty.
The Food and Drug Administration announced the warning in a statement December 21, 2007, urging doctors to take care in prescribing the skin patch and to educate patients about how to use it. The product contains fentanyl, a narcotic, and is used mostly to treat cancer pain, the agency in Rockville, Maryland, said.
The FDA issued an alert on the patch in July 2005 after 120 patients taking the drug died. The agency said it still gets reports of "a small number"' of deaths and life-threatening side effects when doctors prescribe the medicine incorrectly, such as for patients with minor pain or no tolerance for opioids, or when patients use it more often than directed.
"It's not a large number of cases that we're talking about," said Bob Rappaport, director of the FDA's Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Rheumatology Products, in a conference call with reporters. "There are really just a small number of cases that are very concerning because they are preventable."
J&J officials said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in August that they faced 100 lawsuits over the Duragesic patch. Since 2006, two juries have ordered the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based drugmaker to pay a total of $6.2 million in damages to the families of pain-patch users who died after the devices leaked.
If you or a loved one has suffered or died as a result of medical malpractice in Philadelphia or anywhere in Pennsylvania, please contact the attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your initial consultation.
The Food and Drug Administration announced the warning in a statement December 21, 2007, urging doctors to take care in prescribing the skin patch and to educate patients about how to use it. The product contains fentanyl, a narcotic, and is used mostly to treat cancer pain, the agency in Rockville, Maryland, said.
The FDA issued an alert on the patch in July 2005 after 120 patients taking the drug died. The agency said it still gets reports of "a small number"' of deaths and life-threatening side effects when doctors prescribe the medicine incorrectly, such as for patients with minor pain or no tolerance for opioids, or when patients use it more often than directed.
"It's not a large number of cases that we're talking about," said Bob Rappaport, director of the FDA's Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Rheumatology Products, in a conference call with reporters. "There are really just a small number of cases that are very concerning because they are preventable."
J&J officials said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in August that they faced 100 lawsuits over the Duragesic patch. Since 2006, two juries have ordered the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based drugmaker to pay a total of $6.2 million in damages to the families of pain-patch users who died after the devices leaked.
If you or a loved one has suffered or died as a result of medical malpractice in Philadelphia or anywhere in Pennsylvania, please contact the attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your initial consultation.
posted by Lynn at 8:58 AM
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