Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1627

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Publication type: Journal Article

Anderson C.
Court: Pharmacists Can Be Liable for Drugs
Associated Press 2005 Jun 3;

Full text:

A Florida appeals court has ruled for the first time that pharmacists can be held liable for failing to warn about risks associated with use of drugs repeatedly or in harmful combinations, even if they are filling a doctor’s prescriptions.

The 4th District Court of Appeal, reversing a state circuit court’s ruling, decided this week that Robert Powers can pursue claims of negligence against two pharmacies – Your Druggist and The Medicine Shoppe – that filled his wife Gail’s prescriptions for neck and back pain. She died of an overdose.

The negligence claims against the pharmacies were dismissed on April 23, 2004, by a trial judge, who said that under Florida law druggists are not liable if they are filling a doctor’s legal prescriptions.

The appeals court reversed that decision in its ruling Wednesday, giving Powers another chance to pursue his claims. The ruling did not determine whether Powers might succeed on the merits of the lawsuit.

Pharmacists already must have “general knowledge” of the medicines they dispense as well as the risks they present, the court found.

“Thus a strong policy basis already exists supporting a pharmacist’s duty to warn customers of the risks inherent in filling repeated and unreasonable prescriptions with potentially fatal consequences,” Judge Mark E. Polen wrote for the court.

The pharmacies plan to appeal.

Peter Herman, Powers’ attorney, said the ruling is “important because from a consumer’s standpoint, a pharmacist is probably going to be in the best position to raise a red flag.”

Gail Powers, a 46-year-old waitress, died in October 2002 from an overdose of prescription drugs. She had been taking six drugs, including powerful painkillers OxyContin and Percocet and the anti-anxiety drug diazepam. These drugs can be harmful if taken together and some are highly addictive with long-term use, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

In his lawsuit, Powers contended that the druggists wrongly filled all his wife’s prescriptions without question, even though many were filled within days of previous prescriptions – raising the possibility of dangerous combinations or easy access to too many pills. The lawsuit also names his wife’s doctor.

Jay Greene, attorney for The Medicine Shoppe, said the appellate court decision would be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court within 30 days.

The 4th District Court of Appeals noted that its decision conflicts with rulings issued by two other Florida appeals courts in similar cases. But the judges cited recent cases in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Missouri and Tennessee in which courts have found that pharmacists have a duty to warn patients, doctors or both about the possible risks of using prescription drugs repeatedly, over a lengthy period or in certain combinations.