Benicar Side Effects More Than Just a Pain in the Gut

Atlantic City, NJThe overall tally of Benicar lawsuits continues to creep slowly higher with the filing in late summer of a wrongful death lawsuit in New Jersey. The drug (olmesartan) is indicated to treat high blood pressure, a common malady amongst the American population.

The widow of the man who died allegedly from use of Benicar alleges that manufacturer Daiichi Sankyo US Inc., (Sankyo) dropped the ball when it came to sharing the risks associated with Benicar with consumers and their health care professionals.

According to the Benicar side effects lawsuit, William J. Kuznicki had been prescribed Benicar by his doctor to treat hypertension (elevated blood pressure). While actively taking olmesartan, Kuznicki is alleged to have developed sprue-like enteropathy, a rare and debilitating gastrointestinal disease. The latter is characterized by the presence of uncontrollable diarrhea, which Kuznicki was seen to suffer from.

Kuznicki’s Benicar Illness and Weight Loss soon landed him in the hospital, and in February of last year, Kuznicki died at the age of 74.

The late New Jersey man’s widow alleges in her Benicar defective products lawsuit that the manufacturer of Benicar, Sankyo, failed to include in the Benicar drug label any reference to the possibility of the gastrointestinal issue that befell her husband. Thus, it is alleged that neither the plaintiff nor his doctor was in any position to know the consequences - even though, or so it is alleged, the manufacturer was aware of the link based on analysis and reports that were available a year earlier, in 2012.

According to a release by US Official News (10/6/14), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had mandated, by July 2013, a prominent label update for Benicar that spoke to the risk for sprue-like enteropathy.

However, that warning came too late for Kuznicki, who died mere months before the label was updated.

The case - Kuznicki v. Daiichi Sankyo et al - is the seventh case to be filed in New Jersey thus far, with all cases consolidated before Judge Nelson Johnson in Atlantic City State Court. When Actavis PLC filed its Q2 financials in late summer, the company noted there were 12 lawsuits in the pipeline related to Benicar side effects faced by Forest Laboratories Inc. (Forest), a co-defendant in the Kuznicki lawsuit. Forest, acquired by Actavis this past July, co-marketed Benicar with Sankyo between 2002 and 2008, according to reports.

Defendants in the Kuznicki lawsuit include Daiichi Sankyo US Inc., its Japanese parent Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd., and the aforementioned Forest Laboratories Inc.