The gout medication Uloric is relatively new, but studies indicate that Uloric heart side effectsmay be unreasonably dangerous, and even fatal. Indeed, a recent clinical trial has found that taking Uloric increases a person’s risk of heart-related side effects like cardiac arrest.

What is Uloric?

Uloric (also known by its generic name, febuxostat) is a fairly new medication, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2009, and is used to treat gout. Uloric is manufactured by Takeda Pharmaceuticals, a Japanese company with a U.S. subsidiary based in the Chicago area.

Essentially, gout is a form of arthritis that is caused by uric acid building up. This buildup leads to redness, swelling, and joint pain. Uloric works to reduce the amount of uric acid in the body in order to treat gout.

Unfortunately, Uloric has been linked with serious Uloric heart side effects.

Uloric Heart Side Effects

It is to be expected that any medication will come with certain mild or rare side effects, Uloric heart side effects are reportedly more dangerous than reasonable expectation allows.

In fact, the FDA recently issued an alert over Uloric’s risks. According to the agency, the drug has been linked with certain severe Uloric heart side effects, including heart-related deaths.

When the FDA originally granted approval for Uloric, the agency also required Takeda, the drug’s manufacturer, to conduct a clinical safety trial for Uloric. Takeda did so, involving thousands of gout patients treated with fuboxostat or allopurinol, for comparison purposes.  Preliminary results of the trial are already available.

The study of more than 6,000 gout patients found that Uloric, in comparison with allopurinol, presented an increased risk of heart-related deaths, including  heart attacks. Allopurinol is also sold under the brand names Zyloprim and Aloprim.

The FDA has since released a statement about the clinical trial’s preliminary results. “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 notes that “[h]ealth care professionals should consider this safety information when deciding whether to prescribe or continue patients on febuxostat.”

Other Uloric heart side effects include strokes, cardiac ischemia requiring emergency surgery, and non-deadly Uloric heart attack.

Filing a Lawsuit Over Uloric Heart Side Effects

Uloric was previously the subject of litigation when a whistleblower lawsuit was filed in 2012 by a former safety consultant for Takeda Pharmaceuticals. According to the whistleblower lawsuit, the drug’s manufacturer actively hid essential information about negative side effects of Uloric medication from the government.

If you or someone you love has suffered from complications side effects like a heart attack, you may be able to file a lawsuit. While filing a lawsuit cannot take away the pain and suffering caused by Uloric heart side effects, or bring a loved one back to life after an Uloric heart attack, litigation may be able to help alleviate the financial burden caused by medical expenses, lost wages, and other damages.