A California man says the makers of Nexium, Prilosec and Dexilant failed to properly warn him about the PPI effect on kidneys, which he alleges led to his end-stage renal disease.

Plaintiff William C.’s complaint names as defendants AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, AstraZeneca LP, Merck & Co. Inc., Takeda Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., Takeda Pharmaceuticals America Inc., Takeda Development Center Americas Inc., and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.

The plaintiff, according to the lawsuit, ingested Nexium, Dexilant and Prilosec for approximately 16 years, from 2003 to the present. He says these medications caused him to develop chronic kidney disease and end stage renal disease — conditions he says he would have avoided had he known about the PPI effect on kidneys.

William claims personal physical injury and financial loss with regard to taking these medications for acid reflux which are known as proton pump inhibitors.

According to the American Kidney Fund, end stage renal disease is the final stage of chronic kidney disease in which a patient can’t live without dialysis and the need for a future transplant becomes critical.

Most commonly, chronic kidney disease occurs through health problems that have damaged the kidneys gradually over time. Common health conditions that contribute to this damage are diabetes, high blood pressure, and chronic urinary tract infections.

According to plaintiffs in the Nexium Prilosec multidistrict litigation, researchers discovered that there was also a PPI effect on kidneys in 1992 at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center. An article was published on this topic in the American Journal of Medicine.

Plaintiffs say this discovery continued to be supported by other scientific studies and database reviews of adverse medical events associated with patients ingesting PPIs daily over a long period of time. The link between acute interstitial nephritis (AIN), acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, end stage renal disease, and ongoing use of stomach acid reducers of this category has been well documented, plaintiffs claim.

According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of chronic kidney disease include but aren’t limited to inflammation of the ankles and feet, unexplained muscle weakness and fatigue, hypertension, loss of interest in food, “brain fog,” changes in quality of sleep, nausea and vomiting, pain in and around the heart coupled with shortness of breath, itching, muscle cramping and twitching

AIN, as indicated by the long-form MDL complaint, is often the first indication of the PPI effect on kidneys. AIN is a sudden kidney inflammation that has symptoms running along a continuum from very mild to severe.

Many patients may have general malaise, mild fever, weakness, but have laboratory testing come back in the subclinical range making diagnosis difficult. In the absence of quick diagnosis, the AIN PPI effect on kidneys may progress into chronic kidney disease and then end stage renal disease.

The Nexium Prilosec Lawsuit is Case No. 2:19-cv-06042-CCC-MF in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey