S.C. Testosterone Lawsuit Lawyers Standeffer & Harbin Review Consequences of FDA Panel’s Caution Against Excessive Testosterone Therapy Prescriptions
Greenville, S.C. (PRWEB) September 30, 2014 -- Testosterone lawsuit lawyers at Standeffer & Harbin express support for recent recommendations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) advisory panel on testosterone therapy drugs and the risks of heart attack and stroke.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in November 2013 expressed concerns that testosterone therapy may increase the risk of heart attack and stroke in men. The JAMA study revealed that more than 5 million men received testosterone prescriptions in 2011, a 500% increase in the number of prescriptions since 2000.
In response to these medical studies demonstrating the risks of testosterone drugs, the FDA convened an expert medical panel to assess whether testerone drugs on the market should be labeled differently. A September 17, 2014 report from the New York Times revealed the findings from the FDA advisory panel reviewing the dangers of testosterone therapy.
According to the article, the panel advised doctors to limit prescriptions of testosterone drugs to men who had had actually received a diagnosis of low testosterone. In a Safety Announcement released in January 2014, the FDA acknowledged that testerone therapy drugs “are FDA-approved only for use in men who lack or have low testosterone levels in conjunction with an associated medical condition.”
As such, the panel recommended label changes to testosterone drugs to ensure that off-label use of the drugs to combat low libidos and fatigue would be limited.
The members of the panel also recommended that the manufacturers of testosterone therapy drugs conduct additional research to determine the potential heart and stroke risks of the drugs. In the wake of the medical studies demonstrating the risks, lawyers representing more than 200 injured patients and their families filed federal lawsuits.
The lawsuits have been consolidated as a multidistrict litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. (In re: Testosterone Replacement Therapy Product Liability Litigation - MDL No. 2545).
The court documents reveal that testimonials and advertising language played a large role in convincing patients to request testerone therapy. According to the court documents, at the center of the litigation will be the advertising strategies used by the drug manufacturers to target men, including those who did not actually have a low testosterone diagnosis.
Lawyers at Standeffer & Harbin are currently conducting free lawsuit reviews for patients who have been prescribed low testosterone replacement therapy. Free legal consultations are also available to the family members of men who may have died after testosterone-related heart attacks or strokes.
About Standeffer & Harbin
Standeffer & Harbin is has extensive experience negotiating and litigating personal injury cases. The firm, based in Anderson, South Carolina, handles a variety of different claims including criminal law, auto accidents, defective products, dram shop liability, drunk driving and DUI, medical malpractice, motorcycle accidents, nursing home abuse, personal injury, slip and fall, social security disability, truck accidents, workers compensation and wrongful death. To contact Standeffer & Harbin for a free case review, visit shglawyers.com, or call 1 (800) 671-1158.
Standeffer & Harbin, Standeffer & Harbin, http://www.shglawyers.com/, +1 (561) 337-3947, [email protected]
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