One of the things you never think you'll need to worry about is the packaging of your medication. In fact, I can almost guarantee that none of you reading this post has stopped to think about the ramifications of improperly packaged medication.
However, that's exactly what's happening in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia where more than 100 women have filed a lawsuit alleging that mistakenly packaged birth control pills led to their pregnancies in 2011.
In September 2011, Qualitest Pharmacueticals issued a recall of more than 3 million packs of the pills which were, apparently, rotated 180* so that the placebo week of pills (which is supposed to be taken at the end of the pack) was in the place of the first week's pills. Because of the inaccurate pill placement, the lawsuit states that multiple women gave birth to babies that were unplanned while a few others ended their unplanned pregnancies.
The lawsuit goes on to allege that the company willingly "distributed a 'dangerous' and 'defective' product" despite the recall posted on the FDA's website in late 2011. The women are seeking damages for pain and suffering, as well as the cost of child rearing.
This brings up an interesting conundrum: how responsible are manufacturers or consumers responsible for packaging mistakes? Should the manufacturer, who has said they could only verify one pregnancy as a direct result of the mix-up, be held liable for the births of, potentially, dozens of children? Or do we have to hold the consumer responsible when only 1-100th of 1 percent of the packs were returned following the announcement of the recall?
