Recent research and user complaints have linked the diabetes medication Onglyza  with an increased risk of heart attack, heart failure, and heart disease.

Diabetes patients who used this Bristol-Myer Squibb and AstraZeneca product and later developed congestive heart failure or other Onglyza side effects may be eligible for compensation.

Onglyza (saxagliptin) is a diabetes medication that belongs to a class of drugs known as incretin mimetics. As an incretin mimetic, Onglyza stimulates a user’s pancreas to produce insulin, a naturally produced bodily hormone that aids in the regulation of blood sugar after eating a meal.

As a class, incretin mimetic drugs are fairly new to the U.S drug market, meaning that all possible side effects are not known.

Onglyza’s maker and marketers, Bristol-Myer and AstraZeneca, respectively, funded a research study concerning their drug’s potential side effects on users’ hearts. They found that Onglyza users have a higher rate of hospitalization for heart failure compared to other similar diabetes treatments.

Heart failure occurs when a person’s heart muscles become too weak to pump enough blood through the individual’s body.

This Onglyza heart failure study, known as SAVOR, was eventually published in the 2013 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

According to the article, the study’s researchers looked at over 16,000 type 2 diabetes patients, hoping to determine which medications were most helpful in managing their diabetic symptoms.

The results suggest that those who took Onglyza for type 2 diabetes showed a slightly higher rate of hospitalization due to heart failure than diabetes patients who took other forms of diabetes drugs.

Although the SAVOR study’s results were not high enough to warrant a drug label update, the Onglyza heart failure study did prompt experts to further investigate this supposed link between the diabetes medication and heart issues.

In April, an FDA advisory committee asked the federal agency to require an update to Onglyza’s warning label to include a congestive heart failure warning.

If you have experienced heart failure or other side effects after taking prescription saxagliptin, you may have legal grounds to file an Onglyza lawsuit.