From
NewsInferno:
Lawsuits involving the recalled painkillers Darvon and Darvocet could be one of the big legal and health stories of 2011. At least one national law firm – Parker Waichman Alonso LLP – has reported that it has been inundated with inquiries since the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) asked the makers of
propoxyphene products like Darvon and Darvocet to pull them from the market because of their association with serious and potentially fatal heart rhythm problems.
According to the Daily Record, the FDA estimated 10 million prescriptions were written for the medications in 2009 alone, so the potential is there for the propoxyphene-Darvon-Darvocet litigation to be huge.
Propoxyphene is an opiod painkiller that was first sold as Darvon in 1957. Darvocet is a combination drug made with propoxyphene and acetaminophen. According to Public Citizen, despite its widespread use, propoxyphene is not very effective, is toxic at doses not much higher than the recommend dose because a heart-toxic metabolite accumulates in the body, and is somewhat addictive. It has been linked to many thousands of US deaths since 1981, a large proportion of which were likely caused by cardiac toxicity, including the interruption of electrical conduction in the heart, the group said.