As the legal system marshals resources and gears up for large-scale legal action over testosterone drug side effects like heart attack and stroke, AbbVie–one of the major players in the low-T drug market–has been accused of using delay tactics to avoid disclosing potentially damaging documents.

Low-T drugs are basically testosterone supplements they are purported to treat a condition called “low-T,” also known as low-testosterone. As all males age, their bodies tend to naturally produce less testosterone. In some males, this decline is more dramatic and may cause symptoms like irritability, loss of muscle mass, lowered libido, and other symptoms.

Low-T drugs like AndroGel, one of AbbVie’s best selling testosterone products, are designed to alleviate this condition. However, low-T drug lawsuits have alleged that not only are these drugs not necessary, but that “low-T” is not even a real condition and is often incorrectly used interchangeably with the very real health condition known as hypogonadism.

Low-T drug lawsuits have alleged that the prevalence of the “low-T” diagnosis is the results of a process called “disease mongering.”

Disease mongering is when a drug company stirs up concern over a non-existent condition, which they happen to have a way to cure or treat. According to this allegation, “low-T” is a normal part of the aging process, and low-T drugs are just the result of drug companies trying to sell more synthetic testosterone products.

Additionally, low-T lawsuits allege that not only are low-T drugs over-marketed for a normal part of getting older, but that they also carry dangerous testosterone side effects.

Testosterone Side Effects

Within low-T drug lawsuits, it’s been alleged that low-T drugs like may cause serious side effects and health complications. Products included in this growing testosterone litigation include:

• AndroGel
• Androderm
• Axiron
• Bio-T-Gel
• Delatestryl
• Depo-Testosterone
• Fortesta
• Striant
• Testim
• Testopel
• Others

It’s long been known that increased testosterone levels change certain aspects of blood chemistry, including changes to hematocrit levels, a parameter of blood chemistry that indicates how readily blood clots. Increases in hematocrit levels may mean that a person is at higher risk for forming blood clots inside their body, where blood clots may block critical tissues and organs, which may lead to serious medical conditions, including: stroke, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and some types of heart attack.

Low-T drug lawsuits have alleged that previously-healthy males have suffered from conditions like these after starting low-T drug therapy.

So many low-T drug lawsuits have been filed that the legal system has resorted to a process called a multidistrict litigation or MDL to coordinate them. In an MDL, the court coordinates ten, hundreds, or even thousands of similar lawsuits to avoid duplicating testimony or other efforts, and save time and money for all parties involved. However, AbbVie, the market leader in low-T drugs,has alleged dragging its heals with respect to releasing important internal documents.

AndroGel Multidistrict Litigation

AbbVie is the maker of AndroGel, the leading low-T drug on the market. In various AndroGel lawsuits, AbbVie faces claims of participating in kickback schemes with doctors for prescribing AndroGel, as well as claims of aggressively promoting the drug beyond its FDA-approved purpose. This is referred to as off-label marketing and is highly illegal in the United States medical market.

The plaintiffs of the AndroGel lawsuit MDL have asked that AbbVie turn over internal documents, and have now accused AbbVie of being evasive with this key evidence. According to allegations by the legal council of low-T drug lawsuits, AbbVie has responded improperly to requests for documents and moved slowly, despite the fact that the drug maker has had nearly a year to find and release these documents.

In early January of 2015, the plaintiffs in the AndroGel low-T drug lawsuits filed a motion to compel, seeking a court order forcing AbbVie to provide the requested documents. However, AbbVie filed a response in early February, claiming that the requests were vague and the process of digging up their own documents was very time consuming. In short, the company was acting in good faith in recovering the requested documents.

A  joint status conference has been scheduled for Feb. 20 of this year, where the judge overseeing the AndroGel lawsuits centralized in this MDL will have an opportunity to speak with both sides and get to the bottom of this issue, helping the AndroGel MDL to move forward in litigation.

The AndroGel MDL is In Re: AndroGel Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2545, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.