PRODUCT LIABILITY ISSUES AND DRUG MANUFACTURERS: IS TORT LAW EFFECTIVE?

INTRODUCTION Tort law, the genesis for product liability, is based on the principle that if a product has a manufacturing defect, failure to warn or causes grievous injury, the manufacturer is liable to pay compensation to the injured party.1 The dominant view for applying the above mentioned principle is for three apparent beneficial effects, (a) improve the safety of the product, (b) provide compensation to the injured party, and (c) acts as a deterrent effect to the manufacturer of the drugs.2 This article primarily focuses on widely sold pharmaceutical products and argues that product liability is ineffective and socially detrimental in case of pharmaceutical products, considering a cost-benefit analysis of product and its market structure.