Parker, Waichman, Alonso LLP

Home » Topics » Defective Drugs » Darvocet

Injured by Darvocet?

Public Citizen’s Health Research Group asked the FDA on February 28, 2006 to ban Darvon and Darvocet, two popular painkillers. Darvon and Darvocet have been associated with the deaths of at least 2,110 people between 1981 and 1999. Additionally, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group said several hundred more people have died accidentally after taking the drugs each year since then. Dr. Sidney Wolfe, the group’s director, said the main active ingredient in the drugs, propoxyphene, is a relatively weak painkiller and poses an unacceptable toxic risk to the millions of patients prescribed it each year. It’s been sold since 1957.  The drug’s popularity has waned, but still doctors wrote 23 million prescriptions for propoxyphene-containing drugs last year.  Darvocet, which combines propoxyphene with acetaminophen, is among the best known of these types of painkillers.

An analysis of 26 studies that compared propoxyphene and acetaminophen with just acetaminophen or a dummy pill found the “narcotic combination offered little benefit over acetaminophen alone” in treating pain.  “Thus, propoxyphene provides minimal if any additional analgesia to acetaminophen alone and is associated with significant adverse effects. It cannot be recommended for routine use,” Dr. Carolyn Sachs of the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote in her analysis, published in March 2005 in American Family Physician.

Co-proxamol, Britain’s most frequently used drug, has been taken off the market due to concerns about the high risk of accidental death from slight overdose and its frequent use in suicides. Co-proxamol is prescribed to hundreds of thousands of people every year has been the subject of a staggered withdrawal because of evidence that it can cause death if patients exceed the maximum recommended dosage by as little as two tablets. As many as 400 deaths a year are linked to either accidental or intentional overdoses of co-proxamol.

A recent study found that the medication, whose effects are increased by alcohol, was responsible for 18 percent of all drug-related deaths and 5 percent of all suicides. As late 1997, it was the second most prescribed drug after the antibiotic amoxycilin. It is currently marketed by several pharmaceutical companies as co-proxamol and it is also sold under the brand names Distalgesic, Cosalgesic and Dolgesic. In the United States the drug is sold under the names Darvocet and Darvon.

If you or a loved one has taken Darvocet and experienced suicidal thoughts or committed suicide, contact us for a free case evaluation about your case today. Please fill out the short form at the right, or call our lawyers at 1-800-LAW-INFO (1-800-529-4636).