A woman has filed a Viagra wrongful death lawsuit against Pfizer on behalf of her deceased husband, alleging the drug manufacturer is to blame for her husband’s malignant melanoma.

Plaintiff Amanda E. of Oklahoma, filing individually and as the widow of Robert E., claims that her husband’s death was a direct result of Pfizer’s negligent and wrongful conduct in regard to the design, testing and marketing of Viagra.

Viagra Wrongful Death Lawsuit

In Amanda’s Viagra wrongful death lawsuit, she explains that her husband began pharmaceutical treatment for erectile dysfunction in May of 2012. His doctor prescribed him Viagra, which Robert continued to take until February 2014.

During this time, Robert underwent a chest X-ray for a seemingly unrelated medical issue. This X-ray revealed that Robert had lung nodules which were diagnosed as metastatic malignant melanoma, according to this Viagra wrongful death lawsuit.

Additional tests showed that not only did Robert have metastatic melanoma in his lungs, but also in his bones and throughout his body. He received aggressive chemotherapy and other cancer treatments.

According to the Viagra wrongful death lawsuit, Robert died on June 25, 2014, as a result of his malignant melanoma.

According to her Viagra wrongful death lawsuit, Amanda believes that Pfizer is to blame for her husband’s death. She believes that her husband’s Viagra use caused his malignant melanoma and that Pfizer knew about the serious risks associated with the erectile dysfunction drug.

Viagra Side Effects

JAMA has published a research study with evidence of a connection between Viagra (sildenafil) and melanoma skin cancer. The Harvard School of Public Health conducted this study and used data from 2000 until 2010 and followed 26,000 male participants.

The study found that participants who took Viagra were 84 prcent more likely to develop melanoma than those who did not take the drug. According to this study, 3,500 participants developed skin cancer, and of those, 142 specifically developed melanoma.

This study suggests that since Viagra hit the market in 1998, it may have increased the risk of the estimated 45 million men who have taken the erectile dysfunction drug.

Woman Claims Pfizer Knew about Risks

According to the Viagra wrongful death lawsuit, Amanda claims that Pfizer knew about the serious cancer risks connected with their drug.

She states that for many years, Pfizer has engaged an aggressive marketing campaign spending tens of millions of dollars each month on advertising and has reached out to an increasingly younger subset of the market.

While developing Viagra, Amanda claims, Pfizer discovered or should have discovered that the way the drug works also created a significant risk of exacerbating melanoma. Regardless, Pfizer continued to market Viagra in the same manner.

Neither the public nor the medical community had any way of knowing that Viagra presented such serious risks and Pfizer failed to communicate such risks, Amanda claims.

Amanda’s Viagra wrongful death lawsuit raises nineteen claims including unfair and deceptive trade practices, failure to test, failure to warn, defective design, fraud and deceit, loss of consortium and wrongful death, among others.

This Viagra Wrongful Death Lawsuit is Case No. 3:16-cv-03488 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.