Paul Tassin  |  July 26, 2016

Category: Legal News

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Benicar Stomach ProblemsA plaintiff from Mississippi who suffered gastrointestinal symptoms after taking an olmesartan-based drug has joined hundreds of other plaintiffs who claim that Benicar causes severe stomach problems.

Plaintiff Jeremy E. claims he began taking the hypertension drug Azor sometime in 2012. Azor contains olmesartan, the same operative ingredient in Benicar.

Jeremy says that after he started taking Azor, it caused him to suffer severe gastrointestinal problems.

Among other complications, Jeremy says he suffered from sprue-like enteropathy and villous atrophy. Sprue-like enteropathy is a condition that mimics the symptoms of celiac disease, with characteristic symptoms of severe diarrhea with weight loss.

Villous atrophy can also occur in conjunction with sprue-like enteropathy. It’s a condition in which the inner surface of the small intestine erodes to a flat surface. Villous atrophy inhibits the absorption of nutrients from food, potentially resulting in severe nutritional deficiencies.

Along with these conditions, Jeremy says he also suffered from “colitis, kidney failure, malabsorption, malnutrition, dehydration, atrophy and/or symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain, and/or other related symptoms,” treatment of which caused him to incur medical expenses.

Jeremy has filed his claim as part of a multidistrict litigation pending in a federal court in New Jersey.

This MDL now contains over a thousand claims like Jeremy’s, taking issue with the fact that Benicar causes severe stomach problems and the way that its manufacturer Daiichi Sankyo allegedly failed to properly address those side effects with doctors and patients.

A smaller number of olmesartan lawsuits are also pending in a similar proceeding in New Jersey state court.

Olmesartan is the generic drug sold under the brand name Benicar. It also forms an active component of the drugs Benicar HCT, Azor and Tribenzor. All four of these drugs are used to lower blood pressure.

FDA: Benicar Causes Severe Stomach Problems

The FDA addressed the gastrointestinal side effects of olmesartan in a drug safety communication issued in July 2013. That communication announced an addition to the warning label for Benicar alerting doctors and patients to the fact that Benicar causes severe stomach problems.

The communication says that cases reported to the FDA’s adverse event reporting system showed that patients who exhibited sprue-like enteropathy while taking Benicar all showed improvement in their symptoms after they discontinued the drug.

Generally, the MDL plaintiffs allege the company failed to properly warn that Benicar causes severe stomach problems. Some of the plaintiffs claim to have lost as much as 100 pounds after suffering 10 to 20 attacks of diarrhea per day.

They cite reports like the FDA announcement and several other case reports and clinical studies as evidence that Daiichi must have been aware of the link between Benicar and sprue-like enteropathy.

But instead of warning patients about the risks, Daiichi implemented a billion-dollar promotional campaign to convince doctors and patients that its olmesartan products were “superior, more effective, and safer than other antihypertensive drug products available.”

The first trials in the Benicar MDL are expected to begin in late 2016. Attorneys involved with the MDL say it could contain as many as 4,000 claims by the time trials get underway.

The Benicar MDL is In Re:  Benicar (Olmesartan) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2606, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Camden Vicinage.

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