Comments on: “Plavix, lawyers and externalities”

By: Deoxy

Deoxy — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:51:35 +0000

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: Chris

Chris — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 13:04:30 +0000

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: Griffin3

Griffin3 — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 10:11:34 +0000

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.