In the 1990s, Viagra hit the market and was a boon to men suffering from erectile dysfunction and standup comedians alike. However, a new class action lawsuit investigation is exploring legal action over the discovery that Viagra might cause users to develop melanoma.

Concerns about Viagra users developing the skin cancer were spurred by a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s JAMA Internal Medicine, that indicates a potential link between the drug and an increased risk of developing melanoma. The study analyzed data from tens of thousands of men.

The JAMA study was a type of research study called a cohort study. In cohort studies, a group of people are grouped together based on a common feature. In drug studies, one group is typically taking a drug, while a control group is not. These individuals are followed through time, and in a good cohort study, there are typically enough people to look at other traits that could confuse the results. For example, if there are enough smokers in both the control group and the test group, researchers can perform a statistical analysis to isolate these effects.

In this cohort study, a total 25,848 males were included in the statistical analysis. The cohort was followed for several years, after which researchers compared outcomes. It was found that men with erectile dysfunction who did not take Viagra had no discernible increase in their risk of any type of skin cancer. However, when researchers performed statistical analysis on the men who took Viagra, it was discovered that they had a statistically significant risk of melanoma. The results did not find an increased risk of other types of skin cancer, suggesting the group did not have some other risk factor for general skin cancer. Researchers were cautious with the implications of their findings, advising further study was needed to make clinical recommendations.

A class action lawsuit investigation has been launched to explore the possibility of legal action over the possibility that Viagra can increase a person’s risk of developing melanoma. Lawsuits in similar situations have made the allegation that drug makers are aware of the risks associated with their drug, but marketed drugs anyway, endangering the public. Such lawsuits typically seek to recoup the cost of medical care, lost wages, legal fees, and other related costs. These lawsuits often take the form of a class action lawsuit, a type of group lawsuit designed to streamline the legal process by combining tens, hundreds, or even thousands, of potential individual lawsuits into a single class action lawsuit. Class action lawsuits offer the advantage of spreading legal costs for the plaintiffs across numerous individuals. This makes it cost effective for individuals to file lawsuits against large corporations on relatively equal footing.