A new Benicar lawsuit has joined the coordinated litigation movement against the drug’s manufacturers, alleging that the popular medication caused painful and dangerous side effects.

In this Benicar lawsuit, Plaintiff Diane E. of Mississippi states that she began taking Benicar in 2012 and went on to suffer chronic diarrhea, severe abdominal pain, and other alleged Benicar side effects that mimic celiac disease symptoms.

Diane’s lawsuit holds that these Benicar side effects were so severe that she suffered economic losses and mental and physical pain.

Since a larger Benicar multidistrict litigation (MDL) is underway, Diane’s Benicar lawsuit is filed in short form, meaning that her filing incorporates the charges from a larger standardized Benicar lawsuit called the Master Complaint.

The Benicar lawsuit Master Complaint alleges that Benicar can cause serious side effects that mimic celiac disease symptoms. Per the Master Complaint, Benicar was on the market for several years before the FDA issued a Drug Safety Communication warning that the blood pressure drug could cause “sprue-like enteropathy,” a constellation of medical problems that closely resemble celiac disease.

The Benicar lawsuit holds that many patients may have written off Benicar side effects for months, even years, before they realized that the blood pressure drug could have caused their symptoms. The case reports cited in the Benicar MDL include patients who took the drug for more than a year, not knowing that their symptoms could have allegedly been caused by Benicar.

Allegedly, some patients taking Benicar suffered massive weight loss from chronic diarrhea. Though this alleged Benicar side effect might sound like no more than an embarrasing inconvenience to many, severe chronic diarrhea can be life threatening and debilitating.

The Master Complaint lists several cases of diarrhea so severe that patients were hospitalized and lost large amounts of weight. One case describes a woman who lost more than forty-five pounds from chronic diarrhea while taking Benicar, and was hospitalized with a perforated colon.

So many Benicar lawsuits have been filed that the legal system has resorted to a process called a multidistrict ligation, or MDL. The Benicar MDL allows the legal system to coordinate Benicar lawsuits to help streamline the legal process. Since Benicar lawsuits typically hinge on similar claims and make similar allegations, they have been grouped together for an efficient legal process.

The Benicar lawsuits hold that the makers of Benicar knew—or reasonably should have known—that their drug could cause celiac disease-like symptoms. The Benicar MDL further alleges that the makers of Benicar did not do enough to warn and protect the public from alleged Benicar side effects, including chronic diarrhea, possibly leading to months or years of painful, debilitating problems.

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