Seeger Weiss LLP is investigating injury claims associated with common pain and fever reducing drug acetaminophen—which is also know by the brand name Tylenol. Acetaminophen is often combined with other drugs in prescription medication and sold as Percocet, Vicodin, as well as Tylenol with Codeine. Available over the counter and as a prescription, acetaminophen is one of the most commonly used drugs in the United States.
Recently, the Food and Drug Administration confirmed the link between severe liver injury and Tylenol. On January 13, 2011, the FDA announced that drug makers were required to limit the dosage of acetaminophen to 325 milligrams in prescription medicine, and required their most severe "Black Box" warning for all prescription products that contain acetaminophen. Currently, some versions of the popular drugs contain as much as 750 milligrams of acetaminophen. Over-the-counter pain and fever medications that contain acetaminophen, like Tylenol, had already been required to change the dosage labeling to warn consumers against liver injury.
Until the FDA's restrictions are effected, patients taking Tylenol for four days as directed put them at risk of liver damage. In a recent study by researchers from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, as published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, they found that up to 44% of the study participants who took acetaminophen—whether alone or in combination with other drugs—exhibit elevated levels of liver enzyme abnormalities.
The FDA recommends that people consume no more than 4,000 milligrams of acetaminophen per day. Officials caution that drug users mistakenly consume more than the recommended limit because they take two different medications containing acetaminophen without realizing it. This sometimes occurs because drug companies will use the abbreviation APAP for acetaminophen.
More than 200 million prescriptions for the combination painkillers are written in the United States each year. Recent studies have shown that about half of all cases of liver failure, perhaps about 800 per year, are due to acetaminophen overdose, said Dr. Gerald Dal Pan, director of the center's Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology. About 30% of acetaminophen-related calls to poison control centers were for prescription drugs.
