As plaintiffs continue to file Benicar injury lawsuits, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Kugler is moving the multidistrict litigation (MDL) forward by establishing an organizational structure for all Benicar lawsuits filed throughout the federal court system.

Judge Kugler has recently appointed several plaintiffs’ attorneys to serve in leadership roles and argue various pretrial motions that will benefit and affect all individuals who file Benicar lawsuits. These Benicar lawsuits allege that Daiichi Sankyo and Forest Laboratories negligently or intentionally failed to warn the medical community and the general public about dangerous risks of developing sprue-like enteropathy and villous atrophy while taking the blood pressure medication.

Over 45 separate Benicar lawsuits have been filed in federal court, and product liability attorneys expect to see hundreds if not thousands more in the upcoming months.

Due to the immense number of similar Benicar lawsuits, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation established the MDL to steer the cases through pretrial motions. Multidistrict litigation panels help ensure that cases sharing similar facts and questions of law are tried consistently. The panel helps coordinate discovery, avoid conflicting rulings, and helps to expedite the process.

Once the pretrial motions are complete several ‘bellwether’ cases will be tried. These are essentially test cases that will allow the parties to see how juries are likely to react to various testimony that will be used in most of the trials. Bellwether trials also help defendants and plaintiffs gauge what an appropriate settlement offer might look like.

What is Benicar?

Benicar, generically known as olmesartan, is a popular hypertension medication used to treat high blood pressure. Research suggests that over 11 million Benicar prescriptions are written each year. Benicar belongs to a family of medications all using the active ingredient olmesartan. Other olmesartan medications manufactured by Daiichi Sankyo and Forest Laboratores include Benicar HCT, Azor, and Tribenzor.

Unfortunately for many users, Benicar has been linked to several serious gastrointestinal side effects, including chronic and debilitating diarrhea, malnutrition, sprue-like enteropapthy and villous atrophy.

Benicar Side Effects

Warnings about Benicar’s gastrointestinal side effects were not widely distributed until 2013, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration forced Daiichi Sankyo and Forest Laboratories to include gastrointestinal side effects on Benicar’s drug warning label. The FDA believes there is clear evidence showing that Benicar may cause severe gastrointestinal problems.

For many users, the gastrointestinal problems can take months or even years to develop. This often causes doctors to misdiagnose a patient’s side effects as an autoimmune disease rather than as a side effect of Benicar. This can cause the patient to unnecessarily live with serious symptoms for an unwarranted period of time. For most users Benicar’s adverse gastrointestinal problems subside within a few weeks after stopping the medication, although some users risk developing villous atrophy, a permanent gastrointestinal problem that reduces digestive capability and leads to chronic malnutrition.

Benicar Lawsuits

The Benicar lawsuits filed so far claim that the drug’s manufacturers violated consumer protection laws. Claims against the company include breach of warranty, negligence, fraud and misrepresentation, and strict products liability. Successful lawsuits will provide victims with compensation for both past and future medical bills as well as serve to compensate them for some of the pain and suffering they were allegedly forced to endure.