A new Tasigna lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington State on Feb. 26, 2018. The Tasigna lawsuit was filed by a plaintiff alleging a connection between the cancer drug he was switched to while in remission from chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and the stroke which he subsequently experienced.

The patient alleges he had been being treated by his physician with a medication known generically as imatinib prior to being switched to Tasigna. He says he had no known heart or vascular issues of record in his medical history to date.

According to the Tasigna lawsuit, the plaintiff’s ingestion of Tasigna caused a rapid deterioration in the health of his carotid arteries which deliver oxygen-enriched blood to brain.

At the age of 66 years old, the plaintiff claims that he had experienced a stroke as a direct consequence of this Tasigna atherosclerotic deterioration.

The Drug’s History

Tasigna was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2007. It was specifically approved to treat Philadelphia chromosome-positive Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. It was designated as belonging to a class of medications known as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). TKIs keep cancer cells from reproducing by stopping the action of a protein called Bcr-ABl.

Since this approval, data has been gathered by scientific researchers that suggest a relationship between arteriosclerosis and the popular blood-cancer treatment drug. In 2013, a medical journal specializing in leukemia care reported an increased incidence of artery disease of various types as compared with other drugs taken for this condition.

In that same year, the manufacturer and the defendant in this Tasigna lawsuit—Novartis AG—was forced by Canadian drug oversight authorities to change the label to warn of potential newly-recognized risks of artery disease.

This requirement was enforced due to an audit of Novartis’ Global Safety Database which had 277 adverse medical event reports between the beginning of calendar year 2005 and end of calendar year 2013.

Physicians in the Canadian health system were warned to keep a close eye on patients for whom they had prescribed Tasigna. Concerns were aired that those patients might be developing signs of peripheral artery disease and care should be taken to monitor their status and consider a medication change.

There was no such label change in the U.S. and it wasn’t until March 2016 that the first American Tasigna lawsuit was officially filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. This wrongful death case concerned a patient who allegedly took Tasigna and passed away from complications related to a nearly complete circulatory blockage in his legs.

The condition was allegedly linked to taking Tasigna in 2012. The physician of the late patient removed him from the popular cancer drug because of reading about the potential for serious circulatory system problems, but the Tasigna lawsuit documentation contends that the damage was lasting and permanent.