Chicago, ILAbbiVie, maker of the testosterone replacement therapy AndroGel, has been ordered to pay over $140 million to a man who alleges he suffered a heart attack as a result of using the drug.
The case involves Tennessee resident Jeffrey Konrad, who filed the lawsuit, with his wife, in 2015. Konrad was awarded $140 million in punitive damages, intended to deter the defendant and others from engaging in similar behavior, and $140,000 in compensatory damages, according to Konrad’s attorneys.
According to Konrad, aged 56, he suffered a heart attack in 2010, after using AndroGel for two months. He has since recovered from his injuries.
The verdict is for second case of more than 6,000 such cases in an Androgel mass torte pending against AbbieVie and other companies, which have been consolidated in the Chicago court.
In another case, a federal jury found AbbVie fraudulently misrepresented Androgel’s risk for cardiac events and consequently ordered the company to pay $150 million in punitive damages.
According to the claims made by Plaintiffs across the US, AndroGel can cause heart attacks, strokes and other injuries.
In 2014, the FDA convened an advisory committee to consider the adverse cardiovascular outcomes associated with testosterone replacement therapy. On the committee’s recommendation, the FDA required AbbVie to add a warning about cardiovascular risk to AndroGel’s label in May 2015, Reuter’s reports.
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