The multidistrict litigation facing the makers of AndroGel has grown beyond 2,300 individual cases, according to testosterone attorneys.

AndroGel is a synthetic androgen, specifically a testosterone. Testosterone attorneys claim that many drug companies, including the manufacturers of AndroGel have promoted these drugs above and beyond their approval—resulting in widespread life-threatening side effects in men who shouldn’t have been taking the drug in the first place.

Low-T Therapy

The FDA approved AndroGel and similar low-T drugs for treating hypogonadism and hypogonadotriptic hypogonadsim. These two medical conditions occur when men do not produce enough testosterone.

However, the makers of AndroGel and other low-T drugs have alleged promoted the drug off-label, meaning promoting them for conditions beyond their FDA approval. Off-label promotion is illegal, and if these allegations hold up in court, the makers of low-T drugs like AndroGel could potentially be liable.

Those who have filed lawsuits against the makers of AndroGel and other low-T drugs allege the companies aggressively promoted the drug to treat “low-T,” a decrease in testosterone production that men experience as they age.

Low-T lawsuits have called this “disease mongering,” claiming the normal symptoms of aging are a disease that needs to be treated. Medical studies have indicated that many men who were prescribed AndroGel and other low-T drugs never had their testosterone levels checked, something critical to diagnose true cases of lower-than-normal testosterone.

Testosterone Gel Lawsuit

AndroGel lawsuits claim that over-promoting these drugs has serious consequences. Allegedly, AndroGel and other low-T drugs carry the risk of serious side effects. Many hormone-based medications, including many low-T drugs like AndroGel, are known to promote an increased risk of blood clots forming in the body.

Once these clots form, they can cause a host of serious medical problems, including stroke, heart attack, deep vein thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism, depending on where the clot ends up. These are life-threatening medical events.

AndroGel lawsuits allege that the makers of AndroGel were aware, or reasonably should have been aware, that AndroGel could promote an increased risk of clot-related problems. The plaintiffs further allege that the makers of AndroGel aggressively and illegally over-promoted the drug, increasing the risk of these serious medical conditions in order to generate profit.

So many AndroGel lawsuits have been filed that the legal system has coordinated them into a single multidistrict litigation or MDL. In an MDL, the court system centralizes similar cases together to help streamline the legal process.

Since AndroGel lawsuits typically make similar claims and hinge on similar evidence, they were grouped together into an AndroGel MDL, organized through a district court in Illinois.

The AndroGel MDL is In Re: AndroGel Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2545, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.