The first wrongful death lawsuit filed over Benicar diarrhea complications has been filed in New Jersey. The Benicar lawsuit accuses the manufacturing company, Daiichi Sankyo, of negligently marketing an unreasonably dangerous and exposing consumers to fatal complications caused by Benicar side effects.

The wrongful death lawsuit joins dozens of other Benicar lawsuits alleging similar claims — that the blood pressure medication caused serious gastrointestinal problems that included diarrhea, sprue-like enteropathy, and other symptoms that mimic irritable bowel syndrome or celiac disease.

The Benicar wrongful death lawsuit was filed by the widow of William J. Kuznicki, who began using Benicar in 2012 and later developed severe intestinal problems which ultimately killed him.

Kuznicki’s Benicar side effects allegedly caused sprue-like enteropathy, a severe intestinal disease that causes chronic diarrhea, substantial weight loss and electrolyte imbalance. Kuznicki was later hospitalized for his uncontrollable diarrhea and eventually died from these complications in February 2013.

This is the first wrongful death lawsuit to be filed over these Benicar complications, but it joins dozens of other lawsuits alleging similar Benicar side effects.

Benicar (olmesartan) is a popular hypertension medication that is prescribed to treat high blood pressure; over 11 million Benicar prescriptions are ordered each year.

Reportedly, patients who use Benicar for four months or more months can start experiencing severe gastrointestinal problems. While it has been reported that the chronic diarrhea and other symptoms stopped after patients were taken off Benicar, some were left with permanent intestinal damage, like villous atrophy.

In addition to Daiichi Sankyo being named in Kuznicki’s lawsuit, its American partner Forrest Laboratories Inc. has also been named as a responsible party for his demise. His widow accuses the company of negligently failing to list the risk of Benicar diarrhea problems on the drug label, or that this side effect could be fatal. She claims her husband would have never taken the drug had he known these risks.

Overview of Benicar Lawsuits

For the past several months, there have been numerous complaints lodged against Daiichi regarding chronic diarrhea problems and intestinal damage reportedly caused by Benicar. It is alleged in these Benicar lawsuits that Daiichi and Forrest had been aware of these serious Benicar side effects based on a medical report conducted by the Mayo Clinic in 2012.

All of these cases have been consolidated under Judge Nelson Johnson, in the Atlantic County court.

The Benicar side effects report had analyzed dozens of Benicar patients who experienced symptoms similar to celiac disease between 2008 and 2011. Results from the report indicated that the symptoms resolved themselves once the patients stopped taking Benicar. The report ultimately indicated that many Benicar patients had been misdiagnosed with celiac disease, resulting in the symptoms to get progressively worse.

Two months after this report was released, the American College of Gastroenterology identified 40 more Benicar patients who had suffered sprue-like enteropathy, and had been wrongly diagnosed with celiac disease.

The FDA issued a public warning regarding Benicar intestinal side effects in July 2013, and required Daiichi Sankyo to provide warnings of this side effect on Benicar’s label.