Cypher/Taxus Coronary Stent Defect Attorneys

Nationwide Cases

Nationwide actions involving prescription drugs, dietary supplements, over-the-counter medications and other defective pharmaceutical products can be complex, costly and time consuming. The Alvarez Law Firm has the resources and experience to successfully litigate such cases.

If you or someone you know has suffered as the result of a defective and harmful pharmaceutical product, or to learn more about pending cases and see if you qualify as a plaintiff, contact us today to speak with one of our Florida defective drug eluting coronary stent attorneys.

Our firm is actively investigating and engaged in current lawsuits against the manufacturers of some of the following pharmaceutical products:

Drug Eluting Coronary Stents

The FDA confirmed that it was aware of recent data suggesting a significant increase in the rate of death and myocardial infarction (heart attack) possibly due to stent thrombosis (a blood clot in the stent) in patients treated with DES. Stents are small, expandable, stainless steel tubes used to prop open and offer support to arteries that would otherwise be collapsing. The CYPHER® and TAXUS® Stents are drug eluting stents (DES), also known as medicated stents. Unlike bare metal stents they are coated in medications intended to prevent restenosis (reblocking of the artery). Medicated stents are increasingly common, representing approximately 90% of all stents sold in the U.S. in recent years.

Since the CYPHER® Sirolimus-eluting stent first received approval for use on April 24, 2003 and the TAXUS® Express Paclitaxel-eluting stent received approval for use by the FDA on March 4, 2004, over 1.5 million CYPHER® stents have been implanted in patients worldwide and over 3 million TAXUS® stents have been implanted in patients worldwide for treatment of coronary artery disease. This has generated $5 billion in sales revenue to the manufacturers. Recent studies have linked medicated stents with side effects such as thrombosis (blood clotting) and the need for long-term costly antiplatelet medication therapy in order to prevent thrombosis. The studies also found that the drug-coated stents may result in a higher death rate due to cardiac events such as heart attack when compared to metal stents without a drug coating.

Dangerous Drugs

DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this website is not designed to replace your doctor's advice. Always consult a physician to determine whether certain medications or dietary supplements pose a danger to your medical condition.

Practice Areas