A valsartan class action lawsuit is taking aim at contaminants found in the blood pressure drug, alleging it is not equivalent to the name brand version, Diovan, as valsartan’s makers advertised.

In this valsartan class action lawsuit, plaintiff Eric Erwin says that he took valsartan to manage his blood pressure, because he was told by medical professionals and the drug’s advertising that it was equivalent to the name brand version of the drug, Diovan. However, Erwin says that the drug produced in a manufacturing plant in China had been contaminated with a probable carcinogen, and that the drug’s maker knew this but concealed it from patients and the medical community.

Erwin states that valsartan is a drug used to treat hypertension, heart failure, and post-myocardial infarction, and to lower blood pressure. He says that drug was originally marketed under the brand name Diovan and produced by Novartis. Valsartan was reportedly produced in 2014 after Novartis’s patent ran out in 2012.

Erwin aims to hold Prinston Pharmaceutical Inc., Solco Healthcare, Huahai US, and Teva Pharmaceuticals accountable for allegedly falsely advertising the drug and misleading consumers about the contents of the drug. Allegedly, the companies knew or should have known about the contamination but failed to warn patients.

Erwin says that valsartan produced at the Zhejiang Huahai pharmaceuticals manufacturing plant were contaminated by N-nitrosodimethylamine, a substance that the EPA has listed as a probable human carcinogen, meaning that it likely causes cancer in humans.

Allegedly, the companies “willfully ignored warning signs regarding the operating standards” at the plant, and continued to manufacture valsartan there even though they knew or should have known that the manufacturing process could introduce N-nitrosodimethylamine or other contaminants into the drug.

Erwin claims that these contaminants could have entered the drug possibly as early as 2012, and at least have been on the American market since 2015.

The valsartan class action lawsuit claims that the drug companies were unjustly enriched by the sale of the drug, because the product they sold to consumers was not what they promised to consumers.

By the same token, the valsartan class action lawsuit argues that Erwin and other consumers were financially injured because had they known that the drug was contaminated and was not therapeutically the same as Diovan, they would not have purchased it or would not have paid as much for it.

Additonally, Erwin argues that Prinston Pharmaceutical Inc., Solco Healthcare, Huahai US and Teva Pharmaceuticals have committed fraud against the consumers, and violated other state laws.

The valsartan class action lawsuit argues that valsartan’s manufacturers failed to produce a drug was “bioequivalent” to the name brand drug, as required by makers of generic drugs.

Additionally, the valsartan class action lawsuit says that a “full statement of the composition” of valsartan, as is required by law, would reveal that it was dangerous to human health and not equivalent to Diovan.

The Valsartan Contaminant Class Action Lawsuit is Eric J. Erwin v. Prinston Pharmaceutical Inc. et al., Case No. 3:18-cv13447-FLW-LHG, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Trenton Village.