Patients taking Uloric medication as treatment of gout may, according to recent studies, face an increased risk of serious complications like cardiac arrest, which may be fatal. Uloric medication users who have suffered from the drug’s side effects may be able to pursue litigation.

Background of Uloric

Uloric is a popular gout medication manufactured by Takeda, a major pharmaceutical company with a Chicago-area U.S. subsidiary. Uloric is also sold under its generic name, febuxostat. Uloric medication is a relatively recent addition to the market, having just been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2009—less than a decade ago—as a treatment for gout.

Gout, a form of arthritis, is a condition that can cause redness, severe joint pain, and swelling. The main factor that influences the development of gout symptoms is the presence of excess uric acid in the body. Uloric works to combat gout by reducing the amount of uric acid.

While the Uloric medication has become popular in just the few years since its introduction to the market, it has unfortunately been linked with some serious side effects that patients may not be aware of—including the risk of death.

Uloric Medication Side Effects

Any medication may come with certain side effects. But warnings about these side effects should all be included in advertising, marketing and product information. The most severe side effects should be included on Black Box warning labels; however, patients may not have been adequately warned about certain major side effects of Uloric medication, including potentially fatal consequences given the findings of these recent studies.

Uloric medication has been linked with several heart-related side effects including strokes, cardiac ischemia requiring emergency surgery, fatal heart attacks, and non-deadly heart attacks.

Upon the approval of the Uloric medication, the FDA required that its manufacturer, Takeda, conduct a clinical safety trial into the drug’s side effects, looking at more than 6,000 gout patients. The trial’s preliminary results indicate that Uloric increases a patient’s risk of suffering from heart-related deaths like a heart attack when compared with the gout medication allopurinol.

According to the FDA, “The primary outcome was a combination of heart-related death, non-deadly heart attack, non-deadly stroke, and a condition of inadequate blood supply to the heart requiring urgent surgery. The preliminary results show that overall, febuxostat did not increase the risk of these combined events compared to allopurinol. However, when the outcomes were evaluated separately, febuxostat showed an increased risk of heart-related deaths and death from all causes.”

The FDA noted that “[h]ealth care professionals should consider this safety information when deciding whether to prescribe or continue patients on febuxostat.”

Filing a Lawsuit Over Uloric Medication Side Effects

A former safety consultant for Takeda filed a whistleblower lawsuit in 2012 alleging that the pharmaceutical company actively hid essential information about negative side effects of Uloric medicine from the government.

If you or someone you love has suffered from a heart attack or other serious complications after taking Uloric medication, you may be able to file a lawsuit. While filing a lawsuit cannot take away the pain and suffering caused by side effects of Uloric, or bring a loved one back to life after an Uloric heart attack, if successful, it may be able to help alleviate the financial burden caused by medical expenses, lost wages, and other damages. This investigation is looking for Uloric medication users in the Chicago area in particular.