AbbVie Inc., the makers of AndroGel, are facing another wrongful death lawsuit, just one of many testosterone gel lawsuits filed against the testosterone product manufacturer in recent years.

This AndroGel lawsuit alleges a Florida man suffered a heart attack that led to his death because of his use of the testosterone replacement therapy product.

Plaintiff Fronita C. filed this testosterone gel lawsuit on April 22 in an Illinois federal court on behalf of her husband Stephen C., who was prescribed and began taking AndroGel sometime in January 2012. Stephen allegedly continued to take AndroGel until he suffered an acute heart attack in April 2013, which led to his subsequent death.

Like many other wrongful death testosterone gel lawsuits, Fronita alleges AbbVie failed to adequately warn consumers like Stephen about the cardiovascular risks associated with using AndroGel and similar testosterone drugs.

Fronita brings several claims against AbbVie, including design defect, failure to warn, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, breach of warranty, fraud, redhibition, violation of consumer protection laws, and unjust enrichment. This testosterone gel products lawsuit seeks both compensatory and punitive damages from AbbVie.

The AndroGel Wrongful Death Lawsuit is Case No. 1:15-cv-03539, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

This lawsuit is one-of -300 similar testosterone product lawsuits consolidated in the Testosterone Product Multidistrict Litigation known as In re: Testosterone Replacement Therapy Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2545, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Testosterone Product Side Effects

In June 2013, all testosterone replacement therapy lawsuits were consolidated in the national testosterone product MDL mentioned above. The testosterone MDL includes AndroGel lawsuits, Axiron lawsuits, Androderm lawsuits, and Testim lawsuits — alleging injury from using these prescription gels, creams, shots, patches, and other forms of testosterone drugs.

In addition to injury claims, many of these testosterone gel lawsuits allege these products were aggressively (and unnecessarily) marketed to middle age men, promising to rid them of the natural side effects of male aging, such as decreased energy, libido, and muscle mass.

Over the last decade, these testosterone therapy injections, gels, and creams have become popular in the United States. Because of this allegedly deceptive marketing, testosterone drug lawsuits claim many men have asked their physicians for testosterone therapy even when they were not diagnosed with a low-t (or low-testosterone) condition like hypogonadism.

Plaintiffs claim that this unnecessary prescription of testosterone products to men who do not need them has led to an increase in testosterone injuries. Some serious testosterone product side effects include:

• Blood clots
• Enlarged prostrate
• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Death

Many individuals are filing testosterone product lawsuits or have already joined testosterone product class action lawsuits against the manufacturers of these products, seeking compensation for personal injuries incurred while using testosterone therapy. Family members of deceased plaintiffs like Fronita are pursuing wrongful death lawsuits in the names of their loved ones, seeking compensation for damages and loss of consortium.