According to a recent complaint filed on January 17, 2019, by a Louisiana man in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, AstraZeneca, Merck, and Procter & Gamble failed to provide an adequate warning regarding gastric cancer as a potential side-effect linked to the proton pump inhibitors (PPI) medication.
In the lawsuit filed, the plaintiff indicated that he started consuming Nexium medication in 2004 and switched to an over-the-counter version of Prilosec later, and used one of the heartburn drugs till 2016. It was only in January 2018 that he was diagnosed with stomach cancer alleged to be a side effect of the PPI medications. The lawsuit blamed the manufacturers for not taking any action or provide warnings to the medical fraternity and consumers even after receiving numerous reports indicating that the drug might cause stomach cancer.
The plaintiff's lawsuit would be centralized as a part of the federal multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2789; In Re: Proton-Pump Inhibitor Products Liability Litigation |LS|No. II|RS|) in the District of New Jersey where currently more than 2,600 Nexium, Prilosec, Prevacid, Protonix, and other PPI lawsuits are pending before Judge Claire C. Cecchi. Most of these lawsuits claim that PPI drugs are prone to cause kidney malfunction, kidney acute interstitial nephritis, and other renal disorders.
