West Virginia plaintiff Patricia A. Miller filed a Januvia lawsuit against Merck & Co. for the wrongful death of her husband, David J. Miller, alleging that he died as a result of taking the type-2 diabetes drug.

According to the Januvia lawsuit, David Miller was suffering from type-2 diabetes and was taking a variety of medications to help control his symptoms. Januvia had been prescribed to him for this purpose in October 2010.

Miller started experiencing painful symptoms, which eventually led doctors to diagnose him with pancreatic cancer on June 22, 2012. Miller continued to take Januvia until his death on July 16, 2012.

However, after becoming aware of Januvia’s association with pancreatic cancer, Patricia Miller filed this Januvia lawsuit against Merck, charging wrongful death allegations. She alleges that Januvia is the very cause of her husband’s death, and that the company made no effort to warn her husband or any other patient to her knowledge, of any of the drug’s possible side effects. Miller insists that her husband never would have taken the medication if he had known about the association.

The Januvia lawsuit charges Merck with negligence, wrongful death, false advertising, concealing information, and misrepresenting a product.

The Januvia Lawsuit is Patricia A. Miller v. Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. in the U.S. District Court of Southern California. It has been added to the multidistrict litigation for similar drug lawsuits, In Re: Incretin-Based Therapies Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2452 in the same court.

Overview of Januvia Complications

Januvia was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Oct. 16, 2006 to be a treatment drug for the symptoms of type-2 diabetes, allowing patients to better manage their conditions.

Patients across America and Canada rely on Januvia and related medications to help manage their diabetic symptoms to function in everyday life, making the accuracy of their labels vital to the medical community and general public. Januvia’s recent association with pancreatic cancer is alarming to healthcare providers, as many patients could possibly be at risk of developing such a devastating condition.

Januvia is a part of a recently approved class of therapeutic drugs meant to treat type-2 diabetes patients, called dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors. Januvia and other DPP-4 inhibitors work by signaling incretins in the body to produce insulin when needed, which helps level blood-sugar levels in the body, and thereby preventing diabetic attacks.

In a recent incretin study, published on June 10, 2013 in the British Medical Journal, it showed that Merck may have known about the pancreatic cancer risk beforehand, but failed to properly address the risk. The study showed that patients who had taken Januvia and other incretin drugs, had shown a much higher likelihood of developing pancreatic cancer compared to other treatment drugs.

Despite the severity of these implications, neither Januvia nor other incretin drugs mentioned this possibility on their warning label, leading to massive amounts of Januvia lawsuits against Merck and other manufacturing companies.

In general, Januvia pancreatic cancer lawsuits are filed individually by each plaintiff and are not class actions.

Do YOU have a legal claim? Fill out the form on this page now for a free, immediate, and confidential case evaluation. The attorneys who work with Top Class Actions will contact you if you qualify to let you know if an individual lawsuit or class action lawsuit is best for you. Hurry — statutes of limitations may apply.

Learn More