Benicar Settles Lawsuits for $300 Million
On August 1, 2017, Daiichi Sankyo – the manufacturer of Benicar, a drug used to treat high blood pressure – settled the more than 2,300 defective drug lawsuits filed against it by agreeing to pay out $300 million to victims. If you were prescribed Benicar to treat your high blood pressure before May of 2015, and developed severe and chronic diarrhea, substantial weight loss, nausea and vomiting, or villous atrophy, there is still time for you to make a claim for compensation.
You only have until 11:59pm (EST) on August 23,2017 to sign a retainer with an attorney if you wish to make a claim. Time is of the essence, so please contact McGowan, Hood, Felder & Phillips, LLC to speak with an experienced South Carolina defective drug lawyer.
Sprue-like enteropathy is often misdiagnosed as Celiac disease
In June of 2013, the Food & Drug Administration issued a warning about olmesartan (the active ingredient in Benicar) saying that it could lead to gastro-intestinal issues known as sprue-like enteropathy. The condition can lead to severe and chronic diarrhea, substantial weight loss, nausea and vomiting, and villous atrophy – the erosion of little projections along the wall of your small intestine (called villi) that help absorb nutrients from your food. This puts you at risk of becoming malnourished.
Villous atrophy is often diagnosed as a symptom of Celiac disease, a medical condition wherein a person has an autoimmune reaction to gluten. (It is also an effect of certain types of lymphomas, Crohn’s disease, bacteria, common variable immune deficiency, and other types of medications.) Because of this, many doctors failed to diagnosis sprue-like enteropathy for what it was. The result, as a 2016 study in the Methodist Debakey Cardiovasc Journal put it, was “Failure to recognize olmesartan-induced enteropathy may result in patients continuing on a medication that is injurious to the gastrointestinal tract or embarking on an unnecessary and expensive medical evaluation, frequently with steroid use, with both options disrupting quality of life. Time to recognition of this entity is often prolonged.”
You have options if you were misdiagnosed with Celiac
For some patients using Benicar, it took more than a year for a proper diagnosis to be given. That means a year of chronic pain, diarrhea, nausea and medications that were never needed, and that may have done additional damage to their bodies. For some patients, being able to engage in a fulfilling or “normal” lifestyle became impossible, because they never knew when an “attack” might come. As they took more and more medications, and limited their diets, and yet saw no relief at all, the frustration and anxiety must have been excruciating.
Even if you were misdiagnosed with Celiac disease, you were misdiagnosed with another condition, or your doctor failed to diagnose you with sprue-like enteropathy, you may be entitled to compensation. McGowan, Hood, Felder & Phillips, LLC has been a leader in the fight against dangerous drugs and medical product liability for more than 20 years. Our South Carolina law firm has a national reputation for our work representing malpractice victims.
If you were prescribed Benicar before May of 2015 and suffered severe and chronic diarrhea, substantial weight loss, nausea and vomiting, or other gastro-intestinal issues, you still have time to make a claim for compensation. The deadline to retain an attorney is 11:59pm (EST) on August 23,2017. Please call us at 803-327-7800, or fill out our contact form, to learn more.
Randy is the former President of the South Carolina Association for Justice. He has been certified by the American Board of Professional Liability as a specialist in Medical Malpractice Law which is recognized by the South Carolina Bar. Randy has also been awarded the distinction of being a “Super Lawyer” 10 times in the last decade. He has over 25 years of experience helping injured people fight back against corporations, hospitals and wrong-doers.
Read more about S. Randall Hood