Available 24/7 (214) 333-3333
Available 24/7 (214) 333-3333
Available 24/7 (214) 333-3333
Available 24/7 (214) 333-3333
Available 24/7 (214) 333-3333
Available 24/7 (214) 333-3333
If a dangerous medication harmed you or someone you love, you deserve answers — and someone in your corner. Our Denver drug litigation attorneys help victims of defective drugs, failed medications, and pharmaceutical negligence pursue the compensation they may be entitled to.
Drug companies invest billions developing medications — but profit sometimes comes before patient safety. When a pharmaceutical manufacturer hides known risks, rushes a drug to market, or fails to warn patients and doctors about serious side effects, the consequences can be devastating. Our Denver drug litigation attorneys fight for people who were harmed by medications that should have been safer.
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Quick Answer
Do I need a lawyer if a dangerous drug harmed me in Denver?
Yes — and time matters. Drug manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies have teams of lawyers ready to defend against claims. You need an attorney who can take them on. Frenkel & Frenkel investigates the drug's history, preserves critical medical records and prescription histories, identifies every at fault party including manufacturers and distributors, and handles the legal process — so you can focus on your recovery. You pay nothing unless we win.
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COLORADO PRODUCT LIABILITY LAW (C.R.S. sec. 13-21-401 et seq.)
Colorado’s Products Liability Act (C.R.S. sec. 13-21-401 et seq.) defines a ‘product liability action’ as any claim against a manufacturer or seller for personal injury, death, or property damage caused by a product’s design, manufacture, assembly, or labeling — including failures to warn. Under Colorado law, a manufacturer may be held liable if the product was defective in its design, manufacture, or marketing (failure to warn), and the defect caused your injury.
THE LEARNED INTERMEDIARY DOCTRINE
Colorado courts have formally adopted the learned intermediary doctrine (O’Connell v. Biomet, Inc., 250 P.3d 1278, Colo. App. 2010). Drug manufacturers generally fulfill their duty to warn by providing adequate warnings to your prescribing physician — not directly to you. If the manufacturer warned your doctor adequately, you may face additional hurdles in a failure-to-warn claim. Exceptions apply when a manufacturer markets directly to consumers or otherwise bypasses the physician’s intermediary role.
FDA APPROVAL IS NOT A SHIELD
Under Colorado law, FDA approval does not automatically shield a drug company from liability. Drug companies have a continuing duty to monitor and report adverse events after a drug reaches market. Note: Colorado also recognizes a separate rebuttable presumption that a product is not defective if it has been on the market for more than 10 years — but this can be overcome with sufficient evidence. A manufacturer can still be liable if they withheld data from the FDA, promoted the drug for off-label uses, or failed to update warnings after new risks emerged.
COLORADO CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT (CCPA)
In some drug cases, the Colorado Consumer Protection Act (C.R.S. sec. 6-1-101 et seq.) may also apply. If a drug company made false or misleading representations about a medication’s safety or effectiveness, you may have a CCPA claim in addition to your product liability claim. The CCPA allows for actual damages and — if the defendant’s conduct was fraudulent, willful, or intentional — treble damages may be available.
If you suffered serious side effects from a prescription drug, we are ready to listen. Contact us today for a free case review.
Several people or companies in the supply chain may be responsible. The brand-name maker is the most common defendant. Generic makers may also face claims, though preemption rules limit some cases. Compounding pharmacies can be at fault if contamination or a bad mix caused harm. Retail pharmacies may be at fault for dispensing mistakes or for missing dangerous drug interactions. In some cases, doctors may be responsible for malpractice. A full review can show who contributed to the injury.
What is a Mass Tort?
A mass tort is a civil lawsuit involving a large number of plaintiffs who were all harmed by the same product or event. Unlike a class action, each person in a mass tort maintains their own individual claim — meaning your compensation is based on your specific injuries, not a shared pool.
What is MDL?
MDL is a federal court procedure that consolidates similar cases before a single judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings. After pretrial proceedings are complete, individual cases are typically returned to their original courts for trial. In an MDL, your case is yours. You are not sharing a recovery with thousands of other plaintiffs. Our attorneys handle your case individually, gathering evidence specific to your situation, medical history, and losses.
Quick Answer
Can I recover more compensation if multiple parties are responsible for my drug injury?
Potentially yes. Each at fault party may carry their own insurance or assets. Identifying multiple defendants — such as the drug manufacturer, the testing lab, and the pharmacy — can open up multiple sources of recovery that a single-defendant case would not. This is one of the most important reasons to hire an attorney who investigates the full picture, not just the company that sold the drug.
Our attorneys have spent decades fighting for individuals harmed by dangerous drugs and defective medications. We have the experience, knowledge, and resources to take on even the most complex pharmaceutical litigation cases against drug manufacturers, distributors, and other responsible parties.
Our founding attorneys used to defend insurance companies. Now, they use that inside knowledge to fight for injured people like you. We know the tactics companies use, and we know how to counter them.
We have recovered over $1 Billion in settlements and verdicts for our clients. For 16 straight years, our attorneys have been named among the Best Lawyers in Denver.
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GLP-1 litigation, which includes Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Rybelsus, has become one of the fastest-moving drug MDLs in the country. More than 4,400 cases were consolidated in federal court as of January 2026. Plaintiffs say the companies failed to warn about severe stomach and bowel injuries, including gastroparesis, bowel obstruction, and lasting vomiting.
In Colorado, opioid litigation has already led to major accountability. Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family agreed to a settlement of more than $7.4 billion in 2025 to resolve claims tied to deceptive opioid marketing. Colorado was among the states hit hardest by opioid overprescribing, and litigation continues to address the harm caused by companies that put profit first.
Most drug injury claims fit into one of four legal categories under Colorado law. Knowing the category helps show how the claim should be handled and who may be responsible.
Design Defects
A design defect means the drug itself is unsafe because of how it was made to work. The formula or expected effect creates risks that are greater than the drug’s benefits. These claims are less common because an unsafe design would not usually get FDA approval. Still, they can happen when the risks were not fully known or when a safer option existed and was not used.
Manufacturing Defects
A manufacturing defect happens when something goes wrong during production and one batch or unit is different from the intended design. This can include contamination, bad compounding, wrong doses, or sterilization problems in injectable drugs. Compounding pharmacies have been a major concern. The 2012 New England Compounding Center meningitis outbreak, which killed 64 people, is one of the clearest examples of what these errors can cause.
Failure to Warn
Failure to warn is the most common basis for drug litigation in Colorado. Drug makers must share known risks on the label, and that duty continues after the drug reaches the market. If later safety reports show new dangers and the company delays or refuses to update the warnings, that may support a claim. This also includes warnings that were hidden, vague, or watered down so much that they did not explain the risk.
Off-Label Marketing
Doctors may prescribe an FDA-approved drug for a use that was not part of the original approval. Drug companies, however, are not allowed to market a drug for those unapproved uses. When a company pushes a drug to doctors for conditions or patients that were never tested in clinical trials, people may face risks that were never properly studied. Large drug makers have paid billions to resolve off-label marketing cases. GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson have all settled such claims.
Frenkel & Frenkel handles drug litigation cases involving many kinds of medications and injuries.
If a drug hurt you, we want to hear about your situation, no matter which drug was involved. Some common case types include:
Patients who were prescribed GLP-1 receptor agonists for weight loss or diabetes and suffered severe gastrointestinal injuries -- including gastroparesis -- may be entitled to compensation. These cases are consolidated in a growing federal MDL with over 3,100 pending cases nationwide. Our Denver attorneys are actively reviewing these cases for Colorado residents.
Patients who used Suboxone films to treat opioid use disorder and later suffered severe dental decay or tooth loss may have a claim. Litigation alleges the manufacturer failed to warn about the risk of dental injuries from the film's acidic formula. Given Colorado's significant opioid crisis, many Denver metro residents may have been prescribed Suboxone and could be affected.
Women who received Depo-Provera injections and were later diagnosed with meningioma brain tumors may be eligible to pursue a claim. Lawsuits allege the manufacturer knew of the increased risk but failed to include adequate warnings. This litigation is active nationally and is open to Colorado residents.
Colorado recorded 1,865 drug overdose deaths in 2023, with 1,097 involving opioids. The state expects over $750 million in opioid settlement funds over 18 years -- but individual victims may still pursue separate civil claims for personal injuries caused by opioid manufacturers, distributors, or pharmacies. [Source: Colorado AG's Office / SATF 2024 Report]
Patients who experienced uncontrollable bleeding while taking next-generation anticoagulants like Xarelto or Eliquis -- and were not adequately warned of the risk -- may have a claim against the manufacturer.
Certain chemotherapy drugs have been linked to permanent hair loss, heart damage, and other long-term side effects that patients were not adequately warned about.
Patients -- particularly children and adolescents -- who experienced dangerous side effects from antidepressants, including increased suicidal ideation, may have claims against manufacturers who failed to provide adequate warnings.
Former Zantac users diagnosed with certain cancers -- including bladder, stomach, esophageal, or colon cancer -- may have claims related to the drug's contamination with NDMA, a probable carcinogen.
Medications prepared by compounding pharmacies are not subject to the same FDA oversight as commercially manufactured drugs. When a compounding pharmacy makes an error -- wrong dosage, contamination, substitution -- the resulting injuries can be severe. Colorado law provides pathways to pursue these claims.
If you developed a serious condition such as organ damage, a heart event, cancer, a birth defect, severe stomach problems, or other major harm after taking a prescription or over-the-counter drug, there may be a link. You do not need to be sure before you speak with a lawyer. A drug litigation attorney can review your records, the drug's safety history, and the science to see whether the medicine may have caused your injury.
Having a valid prescription does not stop you from bringing a drug injury claim. In most cases, your claim is against the drug maker, not your doctor. If the company failed to share the drug's risks clearly, even with the doctor who prescribed it, you may still have a claim. Colorado learned intermediary doctrine can protect a company when it gives proper warnings to doctors. But if the warning was weak, incomplete, or late, that protection may not apply.
If your drug is part of an active MDL or mass tort, that is important, but it does not mean you have lost the chance to file your own claim. You may still need your own lawyer and your own case to be part of the litigation and to seek compensation. In a mass tort or MDL, you keep your individual claim and your right to accept or reject any settlement. A class action is different and may involve one settlement for a large group.
Drug injury cases can lead to compensation for medical bills, past and future lost wages, loss of earning ability, pain and suffering, emotional distress, disability, disfigurement, and long-term care or monitoring costs. In cases where a company acted with fraud, concealment, or knowing disregard for patient safety, punitive damages may also be available. Every case is different. The value depends on how serious the injury is, your financial losses, and the strength of the proof.
Drug injury cases, especially MDLs and mass torts, can take several years from the first filing to the final result. The timeline depends on how many people are involved, how complex the science is, how fast the MDL court moves through discovery and bellwether trials, and whether the company chooses to settle. Some cases move faster. We will keep you updated and will not push you to accept a settlement that does not reflect the value of your claim.
Colorado has a 15-year statute of repose for product liability claims under Colorado Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.012. This is a hard deadline measured from the date the drug was first sold or delivered to the first buyer. Unlike the two-year statute of limitations, which may be extended by the discovery rule, the 15-year repose period usually cannot be extended. That means you cannot file a lawsuit if more than 15 years have passed since the product was first sold, even if you learned about the injury later. There are narrow exceptions, such as an express warranty that lasted more than 15 years.
Frenkel & Frenkel handles drug litigation cases on a contingency fee basis. That means there are no upfront costs and no attorney fees unless we recover money for you. We offer a free first consultation so you can share your story, ask questions, and learn whether you may have a claim, with no cost and no obligation. Because Colorado usually gives you only two years to file, it is important to act quickly.
Yes. FDA approval does not guarantee a drug is safe for all patients, and it does not shield a manufacturer from liability under Colorado law. If the company withheld information from the FDA, promoted the drug for off-label uses, or failed to update warnings when new risks emerged, the approval may not protect them.
In Colorado, you generally have two years from the date you discovered -- or should have discovered -- your injury (C.R.S. sec. 13-80-102). However, if your case is part of an MDL, internal deadlines to join the litigation can arrive much sooner. Do not wait to consult an attorney.
In a class action, all plaintiffs share one outcome. In an MDL, your case is handled individually -- meaning your compensation reflects your specific injuries, medical history, and losses. Most large drug injury cases are handled as MDLs, not class actions.
We work on a contingency fee basis, which means you pay nothing unless we recover for you. In some cases, we can help connect you with resources to assist with medical costs during your case.
Possibly -- but drug litigation cases are typically best suited for individuals who suffered significant injuries. During a free consultation, our attorneys will evaluate the severity of your injuries and whether a legal claim makes sense for your situation.
If you believe a drug hurt you or someone you love, Frenkel & Frenkel is ready to listen. Our attorneys understand the science, the law, and the tactics drug companies use to avoid responsibility. We have the resources to handle complex mass tort cases and the care to treat every client as a person, not a case number.
Call us at (720) 807-3985 or contact us online for a free consultation. There is no fee unless we win, and time limits under Colorado law mean the sooner you reach out, the better your options.
