Daiichi Sankyo and Forest Laboratories are seeking to centralize pretrial proceedings in the Benicar lawsuits currently pending in the New Jersey state court system.

The acting administrator of the New Jersey courts issued a notice to the state bar, indicating that Daiichi Sankyo and Forest Laboratories (manufacturers of the blood pressure drug Benicar) filed an application with the New Jersey Supreme Court. This application requested that all product liability claims involving Benicar, filed in the state of New Jersey, be consolidated as “Multi-County Litigation” (MCL).

Attorneys for Daiichi Sankyo and Forest Laboratories claimed that it would “make no sense” to try the various Benicar lawsuits before different judges across the state. They also expressed a desire to litigate in a “Multi-County litigation venue with an experienced judge.”

The manufacturers further requested that other lawsuits involving drugs that contain Olmesartan Medoxomil (the active ingredient in Benicar) be consolidated as part of the MCL as well.

According to their petition, there are nearly 60 Benicar lawsuits that are actively pending in the New Jersey judicial system. All of these Benicar lawsuits involve allegations that Benicar induced chronic diarrhea as a side effect along with sprue-like enteropathy.

Other olmesartan-based blood pressure drugs have received the same criticism, but Benicar side effects seem to be the most widely reported.

The Problem With Benicar

Over the past year, people throughout the United States have filed Benicar lawsuits, alleging that the manufacturers of the drug withheld warnings about Benicar side effects such as chronic diarrhea.

The big problem with these Benicar side effects is that they might not even appear until months or years after the first use of the drug. This being the case, many, if not most, plaintiffs complain that they experienced Benicar complications over long stretches of time not knowing the cause.

The good news is that Benicar side effects tend to disappear when patients stop taking the drug, but the damage already done is often severe. The side effects of Benicar can lead to the erosion of the intestines, leaving patients with food intolerance, malnutrition, and complications that mimic Celiac disease.

Benicar Lawsuits

Benicar lawsuits have made their way into the federal courts as well. A New Jersey federal judge consolidated pretrial proceedings in the various Benicar lawsuits that were filed throughout the United States. U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler is currently overseeing the federal litigation.

All of the lawsuits included in the Benicar MDL are based on claims that the defendants, Daiichi Sankyo and Forest Laboratories, were aware of serious gastrointestinal side effects like sprue-like enteropathy, but that they willfully withheld this information, placing desire for profits before public safety.

A number of patients taking Benicar developed severe gastrointestinal side effects which were initially misdiagnosed as Celiac disease because doctors were not aware of a link between Benicar and sprue-like enteropathy. Some of these patients were treated incorrectly for a number of months, and this led to permanent intestinal damage known as villous atrophy.

The FDA mandated that the makers of Benicar update warning labels to reflect this serious side effect in July 2013, but there is evidence that the pharmaceutical companies knew of the risks long before that.