Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

“Plavix, lawyers and externalities”

Trial lawyers are advertising for cases against the anti-clotting drug Plavix, which worries DB at MedRants (Jan. 31): Plavix is an important drug for the proper indications. Having stents placed is a proper indication. Like many drugs, Plavix has side effects. Because it inhibits platelet aggregation patients taking Plavix are more susceptible to bleeding. We […]

Trial lawyers are advertising for cases against the anti-clotting drug Plavix, which worries DB at MedRants (Jan. 31):

Plavix is an important drug for the proper indications. Having stents placed is a proper indication. Like many drugs, Plavix has side effects. Because it inhibits platelet aggregation patients taking Plavix are more susceptible to bleeding. We know that side effect, and must balance the side effect against the benefits that accrue to preventing stent clotting.

We all see the despicable ads from trial lawyers. Whenever a drug has a side effect they see a pot of gold. Obviously these ads scare patients. The externality here comes from these ads. These ads are meant to attract lawsuits, but they additionally scare patients from taking beneficial drugs. We see this phenomenon often.

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3 Comments

  • Unlike some of the less-critical medications (Requip comes to mind), Plavix is a drug with documented life-saving effects. One would hope that in the summary-judgment phase, one could point to benefits on a wider scale, or even to this one patient, and make the argument that MANY more people are helped (lives saved) by this drug than are injured. In all probability, these proposed plaintiffs received beneficial effacts from the drug, in addition to the side effects.

    Unfortunately, by the time these things get to the jury, little details such as science get lost in the rhetoric.

    • By Griffin3

  • I agree that these ads are causing harm. I recently saw a patient who was terrified as she was on plavix because of a stent and had seen those commercials. One thing that may have to be considered is that if the ads scare everyone into not taking Plavix, the attorneys will have no clients as all their clients who stopped their medication will have stroked out or died of heart attacks.

    • By Chris

  • I wonder… could a case be made against the lawyers running those ads? That is, someone stops taking their Plavix and dies as a result of the “facts” in those ridiculous ads.

    Could such a case be made? How about if the deceased had actually signed onto the lawsuit with said lawyer before kicking the bucket?

    • By Deoxy