Vision Damage Caused By Taking Elmiron May Be Mis-diagnosed As Being Age-Related
Bellwether trials for plaintiffs suffering from eyesight damage allegedly from using anti-bladder pain drug Elmiron may soon begin.
Monday, May 17, 2021 - More than 200 cases against Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) filed in courts across the nation have been organized in multidistrict litigation (MDL). During MDL, a judge can decide which expert witnesses to allow and streamline repetitive court proceedings. Elmiron vision damage affects women and is prescribed by doctors to alleviate bladder pain called interstitial cystitis (IC) that commonly occurs after childbirth. Complaints against Janssen and J&J over Elmiron vision damage center on the companies implied obligation to update their product warning label years earlier than they did in 2020. Plaintiffs agree that had they been warned that Elmiron could cause night blindness and the inability to read or drive at night, they would not have accepted the prescription. Plaintiffs also fear that their eyesight damage will continue to progress even if they discontinue taking Elmiron as studies have suggested. Visit Elmiron eye lawsuits to learn more.
MDL is favored in mass tort personal injury cases when plaintiffs have similar injuries from taking the same drug or using the same product and when there is a complicated science. The science underlying Elmiron lawsuits begin with plaintiffs experiencing vision damage from Elmiron and facts that are coming to light that the drug‘s makers must have known years in advance that their product was causing vision damage existed. Study after study dating back years has suggested that those who use Elmiron have a far greater likelihood of developing pigmentary maculopathy and macular degeneration than those who do not. DrugWatch.com quoted one such study as being reflective of the negligence that may have been committed by companies that manufactured the drug and sold it without warning. "In July 2019, Drs. Adam M. Hanif and Nieraj Jain published their study on Elmiron and pigmentary maculopathy in Review of Ophthalmology. Study authors called the eye damage ‘preventable, vision-threatening medication toxicity that could masquerade as other known maculopathies." This has led to the theory that the popular diagnosis of macular degeneration as being age-related may be better described as Elmiron macular degeneration.
Legal experts think that when bellwether trials conclude, thousands of plaintiffs will come forward to file lawsuits making Elmiron vision damage one of the largest mass tort lawsuits in history. MDL is not the same as a class action as each case is taken individually, and a plaintiff‘s damages are weighed. It is likely that given the backlog in court cases due to lockdown precautions taken over the Covid-19 pandemic, some plaintiffs may be heard simultaneously, as was the case when 22 plaintiffs suing J&J for allegedly causing ovarian cancer were grouped. The 22 plaintiffs were awarded an appeal-adjusted $2 billion. Those wishing to file a lawsuit may do so locally and will be referred to the MDL. Potential plaintiffs will have to fill out a court-approved standardized fact sheet that will help focus their case on the pertinent issues such as when and for how long they have been taking Elmiron and the date of their eyesight damage diagnosis.
