I am a 45 year old male that has developed liver damage due to Trovan use. Can I take legal action?

It is true that Trovan, more formally known as trovafloxacin, can cause liver damage. Whether Trovan caused your liver problems is not something that can be easily or quickly determined: for example, the FDA describes liver damage from Trovan as “unpredictable” and notes that it is tracking at present (October 2009) less than 20 cases of liver failure in the U.S.—but that 300,000 Trovan prescriptions are written a month. Therefore, while it is accepted that Trovan can cause liver damage, the low number of cases compared to the high number of prescriptions means that establishing causality is more difficult than just connecting the dots between having taken Trovan and having liver damage.

That said, if you are experiencing liver damage, you should consult with a qualified attorney, one with experience in pharmaceutical cases. The potential stakes are enormous—just ask the Nigerian state of Kano and the families living there, who are sharing a recent (July) $75mm Trovan settlement from the drug’s manufacturer, Pfizer. Pfizer had tested Trovan in Nigeria, and a number of children died as a result. Given that medical costs, wages, and settlements generally are lower in Nigeria than in the U.S., and that an international lawsuit is always more difficult, the fact that Pfizer has paid $75mm in settlement should give you an idea of what sort of dollars are at stake in American claims. That’s why, despite the lack of certainty that your own injuries were caused by Trovan, and the potentially high costs of a lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company (involving as it would highly compensated expert witnesses), if you believe that you may have suffered serious and lifelong injury from an unsafe medication, it is worth exploring the matter.

This is especially so since, according to the FDA advisory, Trovan should only be given when patients begin their treatment in inpatient facilities (hospitals, nursing home, and other long-term care facilities). Since your describe your treatment as administered at home, it may be that treatment guidelines or rubrics were violated—which may also potentially given you a cause of action against the prescribing physician as well.