Amidst allegations that the makers of Onglyza failed to warn the medical community and general public about serious risks associated with taking the diabetes drug, product liability attorneys are available to speak with potential plaintiffs looking to bring Onglyza lawsuits.

Onglyza, generically known as saxagliptin, is a popular type-2 diabetes medication approved by the FDA in 2009. It works by stimulating the production of insulin in the pancreas, which ultimately helps sugar get turned into energy to help our cells work properly.

The medication is in a category of drugs known as incretin mimetics, which gained popularity after Avandia, a type-2 diabetes medication in a different class of medications, was associated with an increased risk of cardiac events.

Onglyza, however, reportedly has risks of its own.

According to the SAVOR study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, patients who took Onglyza were slightly more likely to require hospitalization due to heart failure than patients who took other varieties of type-2 diabetes medications.

Researchers believe that based on this study, further research should be performed concerning the risks of heart failure while taking Onglyza.

In April 2015 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration required Onglyza’s manufacturer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, to include the risk of heart failure on the medication’s warning label.

Diabetes is a disease that causes blood sugar levels, or glucose, to rise. People who suffer from type-2 diabetes suffer from insulin resistance, meaning the body does not use insulin properly.

At the onset of type-2 diabetes the pancreas makes extra insulin to make up for the body’s inefficiencies. Eventually the pancreas cannot keep up the increased production, and the body’s blood glucose drops below normal.

Onglyza Heart Failure

Heart failure is a serious and life threatening condition where a person’s heart cannot pump enough blood. In some cases the heart walls become stiff and the chambers thicken, which prevents the heart from filling with enough blood.

In other cases, the walls of the heart become stretched and thin, making it hard for the heart to pump blood throughout the rest of the body.

Depending on the type of heart failure that a person is experiencing, symptoms can include shortness of breath, tiredness, and fluid build up in the feet, ankles, legs, liver, abdomen, and neck veins.

Plaintiffs who have suffered from heart failure or other possible Onglyza side effects may be awarded compensation for medical bills and the pain and suffering they experienced due to Onglyza heart failure.