An Arizona woman is suing Janssen Pharmaceuticals, alleging the company failed to properly warn her of the risk of Invokana kidney failure.

Plaintiff Debra R. says she was prescribed Invokana in January 2014. She claims she took it as directed to treat her diabetes.

During her Invokana treatment, Debra says she suffered from Invokana kidney failure. Her kidney failure progressed to form complications that landed her in the hospital for several days, she claims.

Debra now says her kidney failure was a direct result of a failure to warn on the part of defendants Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson and their related companies.

She argues the defendants failed to issue adequate warnings about the risk of Invokana kidney failure.

“Defendants misrepresented that Invokana is a safe and effective treatment for type 2 diabetes mellitus when in fact the drug causes serious medical problems which require hospitalization and can lead to life threatening complications,” her Invokana lawsuit alleges.

She alleges that at the time of her treatment, neither she nor her treating physicians were aware of the true risks of Invokana side effects. Had they been so aware, Debra would not have taken Invokana and would have avoided the associated risk of kidney failure, she claims.

Instead, she says both she and her physicians relied on representations by Janssen that Invokana is generally safe and effective – representations she claims were false and misleading.

Debra points out that information about Invokana kidney failure was available in published scientific literature and government documents, putting Janssen on notice about the risk.

The drug’s developers were aware that Invokana’s mechanism of action puts “extraordinary strain” on the patient’s kidneys, Debra claims.

She also notes Canadian regulators issued a warning in October 2015 alerting the public that Invokana can cause acute kidney injury.

More Plaintiffs Allege Invokana Kidney Failure

Debra’s claim is part of a multidistrict litigation, or MDL, recently created to process claims over side effects of Invokana.

When the federal court system expects a large number of claims to be filed over a particular issue, it sometimes consolidates all related actions into a single MDL. Handling similar cases together helps the court processes these cases more efficiently and promotes more consistent decisions on pretrial issues.

The Invokana MDL was created in December 2016 when the federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transferred 55 federal Invokana lawsuits to the District of New Jersey, to be overseen by U.S. District Judge Brian R. Martinotti.

Plaintiffs in these Invokana lawsuits fault Janssen for inadequate warnings about a few different side effects.

In addition to kidney failure, many are taking issue with the drug’s link to ketoacidosis – a condition in which the blood’s acidity rises to an intolerable level, putting the patient at risk for coma or possibly death.

Debra’s Invokana Kidney Failure Lawsuit is Case No. 3:17-cv-00064 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The Invokana MDL is In re: Invokana (Canagliflozin) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2750, also in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.