If you’ve ever been pregnant you know that the first trimester is not the best of times. Everyone talks about the glow you will have and the wonderful feeling when your baby moves but then you end up in the restroom every time someone walks by your desk with food that apparently your baby is NOT a fan of. Nausea becomes too much so you tell your doctor and they suddenly have a quick fix. There’s just one problem, this quick fix is a drug called Zofran that could cause serious health problems for your child.
Zofran was originally approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to give aid to cancer patients that were becoming sick after chemo or other drugs. The drug helps calm vomiting and nausea by blocking chemicals in your brain. If they are giving it to cancer patients it should be safe for anyone to take it, right? Not exactly. GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of Zofran, began to solicit pregnant women to take the drug for their nausea during the first trimester. This was never approved by the FDA. In 2006 they lost the patent on their drug. Doctors, however, have continued to prescribe generic forms of this medication to pregnant women without proper approval.
So why is this a big deal? The drug has been linked to causing many birth defects including heart defects, cleft palate, Jaundice, and musculoskeletal anomalies. Many studies have been done in the past five years to support these claims. GlaxoSmithKline now has many lawsuits against them. Not only are women who used the drug while pregnant filing against them, the United States Department of Justice got a $3 million dollar settlement after a lawsuit was filed against the makers for promoting off-label use of several of their drugs.
If you are pregnant I encourage you to thoroughly research any medications prescribed to you. If you have already had your child and feel as though Zofran was the cause of a birth defect, please contact the Brooks Law Group at 1-888-We-Mean-It.
