Johnson & Johnson is facing a Levaquin lawsuit alleging that the antibiotic causes peripheral neuropathy. The lawsuit was filed by a Maryland woman, who claims she has severe and permanent nerve damage after taking the drug.

The Levaquin lawsuit filed by plaintiff Karyn Grossman in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, names Johnson & Johnson, its Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals subsidiary and the drug distributor McKesson Corp. as defendants.

According to allegations raised by Grossman in the Levaquin lawsuit, Johnson & Johnson ignored information about the link between Levaquin and peripheral neuropathy for years, failing to adequately warn consumers and the medical community about the risk of permanent and long-lasting nerve damage.

The Levaquin lawsuit notes that the warnings about rare cases of nerve damage from Levaquin were buried deep within the drug safety guides and prescribing information. Grossman alleges that if adequate warnings had been provided to her and her physician, Levaquin complications from peripheral neuropathy may have been avoided by choosing to use a different antibiotic.

Grossman also indicates in the Levaquin lawsuit that Johnson & Johnson knew or should have known about the risk of peripheral neuropathy from Levaquin and other fluoroquinolones as early as 1992, when a case report was published in the medical journal The Lancet, outlining circumstances surrounding a patient who developed nerve damage after taking Levaquin.

What is Levaquin?

The antibiotic drug Levaquin (levofloxacin) is prescribed to treat bacterial infections, pneumonia, and skin infections. It was created by the drug company Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1996.

Levofloxacin has been available as a generic drug since 2011. Every year, more than 6 million people are prescribed oral Levaquin, and more than 1 million are given intravenous (IV) Levaquin in a hospital setting.

What is Peripheral Neuropathy (PN)?

Peripheral neuropathy (nerve damage) occurs when nerves between the brain and body are damaged, causing a condition called paresthesia in the arms and legs. There are over 100 different types of peripheral neuropathy, depending on which nerves are involved. Many people suffer from general numbness, muscle weakness, and problems with coordination, which can cause problems with walking, fastening buttons, or balancing.

Some types of peripheral neuropathy can cause severe, chronic pain that is extremely difficult to treat. Symptoms of peripheral peuropathy include:

• Pain
• Burning
• Tingling
• Numbness
• Weakness
• Change in sensation to light touch, pain, or temperature
• Change in sense of body position
• Loss of reflexes
• Paresthesia
• Muscle wasting
• Paralysis

The FDA recently issued a warning that fluoroquinolone antibiotics such as Levaquin, taken by mouth or injection, carry a risk for permanent peripheral neuropathy.

Levaquin Peripheral Neuropathy Lawsuits

Grossman’s charges against Johnson & Johnson for strict liability, failure to warn, negligence, breach of warranty, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and fraudulent concealment, seeking both punitive and compensatory damages. She is demanding a jury trial for this case.

The Levaquin Peripheral Neuropathy Lawsuit is Karen Joy Grossman v. Johnson & Johnson, et al., Case No. 3:14-cv-03557, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.