These are all in addition to the legal actions that numerous states and the federal EPA have taken over PFAS contamination. The EPA issued a regulation requiring testing for drinking water contamination and advisories about what it considered to be a safe level of PFASs in water. In April 2024, the agency finalized the National Primary Drinking Water Regulation, officially setting these maximum contaminant levels. Some states have banned many forms of PFASs and certain uses of the chemical compounds, and many others have enacted tighter drinking water standards for certain PFASs than the federal government recommended.

Finally, other cases, and some other settlements in their entirety, are for personal injury claims – victims have gotten cancer and their exposure to PFASs increased their likelihood of getting it. Because new victims are likely to appear for numerous years into the future, and due to the sizes of likely settlements, these cases may settle in a way that creates a victim fund, filled with money from the companies behind PFAS manufacture and use. After this happens, victims who have developed a covered health condition and who were exposed to PFASs to at least a stipulated extent could file a claim against the fund for compensation for their losses.

Until such a fund is created, or if one never is, claims would likely proceed in multidistrict litigation, or MDL. This is similar to a group action, but has become the preferred method for filing against the same defendant or defendants for the same course of conduct that led to numerous victims suffering the same types of losses – in this case PFAS cancer and other health conditions linked to exposure.

In an MDL, numerous victims’ cases are consolidated not in a single suit, as in a class action, but in a single courtroom for pre-trial procedures. The same judge handles these issues for all of the cases at once, including:

The mayo clinic provides the following signs and symptoms of heart failure that Onglyza patients should be aware of:

Alere Inc. recalled INRatio2 PT/INR Professional Test Strips on April 16, 2014 due to instances of patients recording a beneficial INR when using the test strips, but a significantly higher INR on tests performed by a central laboratory. Manufactured dates for the affected test strips range from August 22, 2013 through April 2, 2014 with distribution from August 26, 2013 through April 2, 2014.

Alere issued a second recall statement on December 5, 2014 involving the Alere INRatio and INRatio2 PT/INR Monitor System. 

The release states that the systems should not be used on patients with any of the following conditions:

Viagra(sildenafil) acts as a potent PDE5A (an enzyme) inhibitor. In 2011 a study was published stating low PDE5A expression allows for the pervasiveness of melanoma cells. This was a beginning piece of evidence that current erectile dysfunction drugs inhibit an enzyme that helps protect the body from skin cancer. Later in 2014 a more comprehensive study was finalized involving an analysis of over 25,848 men taking sildenafil (Viagra). The results showed that Viagra nearly doubled the chance for men to develop the deadly skin cancer melanoma. The study also recommends further investigation into the link between melanoma and erectile dysfunction drugs that inhibit PDE5A.

Taxotere in Europe and Canada contained warnings of permanent hair loss as early as 2005 and 2012 respectively. Why it took so long for the FDA & manufacturers to warn users remains a mystery, particularly when there is a more effective, American-made product, Taxol that is at least as effective if not more effective than Taxotere at treating cancer. In attempting to compete with Taxol, which is manufactured by American-based Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi Aventis created Taxotere which is a semi-synthetic analogue of Taxol with twice the potency. Although Taxotere has double the strength of Taxol , the effectiveness remains similar while exposing patients to increased toxicity. This increased toxicity is the primary cause of permanent baldness seen using Taxotere over comparable treatments.

Many patients taking Taxotere were told that their hair loss would only be temporary, when in fact it appears to be permanent in certain cases. Patients were not adequately warned about this severe side effect. It is believed that the manufacturers had knowledge of this risk of permanent hair loss but failed to disclose it. This failure to adequately warn patients deprived them of their ability to choose alternative chemotherapy drugs such as Taxol that are arguably more effective without the risk of permanent hair loss.Had the France-based Sanofi Aventis honestly described its side effects, most women would probably have elected to use the American-made product that is just as effective without the permanent hair loss.

What Takeda knew and when they knew it will have a major impact on this litigation.  In addition, the updated labeling information likely triggers the statute of limitations for people already injured by the drug. 

The statute of limitations is the time limit in which a lawsuit must be filed.  Failure to file suit within the time limit usually prevents a person from any financial recovery. It can take 6 months or more to fully investigate an individual case for litigation. In a handful of states the time limit to file suit can be as short as 1 year.  Those injured by Takeda need to take legal action immediately!  Your time may already be running out to file suit.  Do not miss out on the compensation you deserve.

For any BELVIQ® and/or BELVIQ XR® patients already diagnosed with colorectal, lung, or pancreatic cancer, the recall likely creates a legal obligation to file any existing claims within a specified time. This time limit, referred to as the statute of limitations, can be as short as one year in some states. Failure to file suit within your state’s applicable statute of limitations usually prevents you from being compensated for your injuries.

These same deadlines apply when a loved one has passed away due to their cancer diagnosis. It is critical that these individuals seek representation immediately before their claims are time-barred. Your time to file suit is running out!

Individuals who have not been diagnosed with cancer should take steps right away to preserve their medical and pharmacy records. In the event you are diagnosed with cancer in the future, these records will be necessary to pursue a case.

In this litigation, Gilead Science is accused of intentionally suppressing and manipulating clinical trial data to delay the release of information to the public concerning bone breaks and kidney damage.  It is alleged that this data was intentionally kept from the public in order to protect sales of  Truvada, while Gilead worked to develop a replacement, Descovy, which does not carry the same risks of bone and kidney injury.  According to recent court filings, Gilead knew of the risk for bone loss and kidney damage in their medications as far back as 2000 but did not want to release safer alternatives until after the patent on Truvada expired.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers have a legal and moral duty to provide consumers with accurate information concerning the side-effects of their medication.