New information about Nexium kidney side effects could be leading to a new wave of litigation over one of the most frequently prescribed treatments for excess stomach acid.

Nexium is manufacturer AstraZeneca’s brand name for esomeprazole. It’s used to treat conditions that involve excessive stomach acid – conditions like gastroesophageal reflux disease or Zollinger-Ellison syndrome.

It can also be used to prevent gastric ulcers that can be caused by certain bacterial infections or by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Since its introduction in the early 2000s, Nexium has brought AstraZeneca plenty business success. Sales of Nexium contributed to the company’s total revenues of over $24 billion in 2015.

Nexium is one of a class of acid-suppressing medications known as proton pump inhibitors, or PPIs. Rather than neutralize stomach acid chemically like other antacid medications, PPIs inhibit the production of acid by cells in the stomach.

By reducing the activity of proton-potassium pumps in the stomach’s parietal cells, PPIs cause those cells to produce less acid, resulting in less acidity inside the stomach.

New Studies Report Nexium Kidney Side Effects

Like virtually any other drug, Nexium has its side effects – some of which have the potential to be quite serious. A few recent studies have documented Nexium kidney side effects, which in more extreme cases have led to chronic kidney disease.

A study published online in the journal CMAJ Open in April 2015 reported that patients taking Nexium or other PPIs had more than double the increase in likelihood for hospital admission for acute kidney injury.

In a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine in February 2016, researchers reviewed the records of over 10,000 patients, some of whom took PPIs like Nexium and some of whom took a different type of acid-suppressing drug known as an H2-receptor antagonist.

The researchers found that those who took PPIs had a 20 to 50 percent higher risk of developing chronic kidney disease. Among those users, the ones who took PPIs twice daily showed a higher incidence of chronic kidney disease than those who took them only once daily.

Another study published online in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology in April 2016 revealed similar results. In that study, researchers reviewed the records of thousands of patients in the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system, comparing the histories of new users of PPIs like Nexium to those of new users of H2-receptor antagonists.

In the PPI users, the researchers found an increased incidence of signs of kidney trouble and of chronic kidney disease itself. They found that over the course of five years, PPI users were 28 percent more likely to develop end-stage renal disease.

With the growth of this body of medical literature about Nexium kidney side effects, a new wave of pharmaceutical products liability claims may follow.

The first known federal lawsuit alleging Nexium kidney side effects was filed in May 2016. The plaintiff in that case claims maker AstraZeneca had evidence of a possible link between Nexium and kidney problems as far back as 2004, yet neglected to add information about those reports to the drug’s warning label.