The makers of AndroGel, Axiron, and Fortessa are facing another lawsuit alleging that their testosterone drugs are dangerous.

Plaintiff Kelly Marshall, the administratrix for deceased Roy Marshall, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against AbbVie Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Eli Lily, and related companies, alleging that they have created dangerous drugs and aggressively over-marketed them, ultimately leading to Roy Marshall’s death.

Roy Marshall took AndroGel, Axiron and Fortessa, three testsosterone products. These are drugs designed to increase testosterone levels to treat “low T,” or declining levels of testosterone associated with aging. They are typically applied as a cream or gel.

According to the testosterone product lawsuit, Marshall began taking these drugs in late 2011, and his physicians switched him between the three different drugs until his death in October 2012, less than year after beginning treatment. His death was caused by a myocardial infarction, a type of heart attack in which a blood clot lodges in the vessels that feed the heart tissue itself.

The AndroGel lawsuit alleges that these testosterone products were the cause of Marshall’s death. According to the AndroGel lawsuit, these drugs’ earliest clinical trials have suggested that the drugs could cause both an elevated hematocrit level and increased blood pressure.

Hematocrit is a chemical characteristic of blood; higher hematocrit levels increase the thickness or viscosity of blood. When this is combined with high blood pressure, these two factors can promote the formation of blood clots in the body. These blood clots can lodge in the blood vessels that feed critical tissues, causing a variety of medical problems and death. For example, if such a clot blocks the blood supply to the brain, it is called a stroke. If such a clot lodges in the heart, it is called a myocardial infarction, the type of heart attack that killed Marshall.

Additionally, epidemiological studies and surveys have found an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and other clot-related problems associated with these drugs, suggesting the risk is not just theoretical.

The AndroGel lawsuit further alleges that not only were these drugs dangerous, but that drug makers aggressively over-promoted them. To back this assertion, the AndroGel lawsuit cites the millions spent on marketing testosterone products, as well as the billions in sales they have generated.

The AndroGel lawsuit also claims that the makers of low T drugs engage in disease-mongering, or creating the idea of low T as a disease to generate sales. The lawsuit cites the fact that a substantial number of patients taking these drugs have never even had their testosterone levels tested in the first place, making the decision based on direct-to-consumer ads and questionnaires when a blood test could have settled the matter.

The AndroGel Lawsuit is Kelly Marshall, et al. v. AbbVie Inc., et al., Case No. 1695, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.