On Jan. 3, 2020, a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri that puts a spotlight on heartburn medication causing kidney failure.

The legal case is essentially a wrongful death suit brought against named defendants AstraZeneca, Procter and Gamble, Pfizer, and all of their related companies. It also seeks to hold responsible up to 30 unknown entities identified as ABC Corporations, John Does, and Jane Does.

The plaintiffs are the direct heirs of the decedent Stephen Dunson Sr. who succumbed to acute renal failure in January of 2016 at St. Luke’s Medical Group located in the Chesterfield and Greater St. Louis Area of Missouri. The complainants—Shaun Dunson and Stephen Dunson Jr.—are the living sons of the deceased and both reside in the Kansas City region.

They are accusing the defendants of marketing defective heartburn medication causing kidney failure.

A Case of Wrongful Death?

According to the timeline presented by the lawsuit, Dunson Sr. took Prilosec, Prilosec OTC, Nexium, and Protonix beginning in 2005. He took this under the direction of his personal physician, often by prescription.

When he didn’t have a prescription available, he took over-the-counter versions, believing them to be safe to take. The sons allege that as a result of this routine ingestion, their father developed Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) a year prior to his death. They claim the heartburn medication causing kidney failure ultimately caused him to sustain permanent injuries for which he couldn’t recover.

How Proton Pump Inhibitors Work

The aforementioned list of heartburn medications taken by the decedent for whom this case was filed are part of a class of drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). PPIs are the strongest inhibitors of stomach acid secretion available and are often more than is necessary for the average sufferer of occasional acid reflux.

The lawsuit indicates that PPIs “irreversibly block the stomach’s proton pump of acid of acid producing parietal cells, thereby suppressing gastrointestinal acid secretion.” This inhibition can have an inflammatory effect on the tubules of the kidneys causing injury. This inflammation can be the first step in other more serious renal problems and is called acute interstitial nephritis (AIN).

The complainants allege that the defendants failed to warn the public and professional medical community about the dangers of AIN and the more serious conditions that can follow such as chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal failure.

The case lists numerous studies including clinical studies and adverse event reporting that was available and could have been drawn upon to notify of risks involved with PPI use.

According to the lawsuit, prescription PPIs are major money-makers for the companies involved in their development and marketing. As of ten years ago, 21 million U.S. citizens used them at least once per month.

This is just a 20 percent slice of the global pie of PPI income and equals $11 billion. Studies have noted that those that use them develop a type of dependency in that acid production goes into overdrive once the usage ceases, creating an endless cycle for the reflux sufferer.