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AVELOX


Product Liability Lawyer representing plaintiffs nationwide in Pharmaceutical Litigation and drug injury cases
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Antibiotic Injury Lawsuits

investigating avelox injury cases

Recent studies, published by the American Medical Association and numerous medical journals, show a link between the use of fluoroquinolone antibiotics, like Avelox, and a substantial risk for aortic aneurysms and aortic dissections. The 2015 studies identify a logical “association” between fluoroquinolone use and the development of severe aortic disorders, including fatal aortic ruptures.

Aortic dissection is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the lining of the aorta—the primary artery in the body—is broken down under distress, causing debilitating complications that often lead to death. These conditions are called silent killers as without regular monitoring there is often no warning that the aorta has been compromised.

When the aorta wall ruptures, patients have roughly a 50 percent chance of survival. Available research warns that the use of antibiotics like Avelox (moxifloxacin) could be associated with an increased risk immediately following treatment, or years later.

Joe Lyon is a highly-rated Cincinnati product liability lawyer and Ohio pharmaceutical attorney, representing plaintiffs nationwide in a wide variety of wrongful death and injury claims related to dangerous pharmaceutical products.  


FDA Warns of Avelox Risks


Fluoroquinolone antibiotics are helpful in treating a wide variety of infections, but they also carry the potential to cause “disabling” side effects like aortic aneurysms and dissections, as well as permanent nerve damage.

Injured patients and lawyers have filed countless lawsuits against major drug makers, claiming that the side effects they list as “rare” are deceptively understated. These common drugs have a history of generating adverse health reactions, and the most recent updates from the FDA are predictable.

The fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics has concerned U.S. health officials for the last decade. In 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) implemented a new boxed warning on fluoroquinolone packaging, clearly listing the risks of tendon rupture. Avelox, CiproNoroxin and Levaquin were among the drugs targeted in that specific FDA warning.

In 2013 the FDA issued another warning regarding peripheral neuropathy (permanent nerve damage) as a potential side effect of Avelox. The warning says permanent nerve damage is possible in the arms, hands, legs and feet of patients.

The government agency followed up by recommending a restriction on the drugs’ use to a last resort. The FDA statement explains, “Health care professionals should not prescribe systemic fluoroquinolones to patients who have other treatment options.”

The agency says (for some patients), “the risks outweigh the benefits.” Research suggests that more prudent use of the antibiotics could avoid fatal aortic aneurysms.

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ABOUT THE LYON FIRM

Joseph Lyon has 17 years of experience representing individuals in complex litigation matters. He has represented individuals in every state against many of the largest companies in the world.

The Firm focuses on single-event civil cases and class actions involving corporate neglect & fraud, toxic exposure, product defects & recalls, medical malpractice, and invasion of privacy.

NO COST UNLESS WE WIN

The Firm offers contingency fees, advancing all costs of the litigation, and accepting the full financial risk, allowing our clients full access to the legal system while reducing the financial stress while they focus on their healthcare and financial needs.


Antibiotic Aortic Dissection


Recent studies on cardiac problems, published by the American College of Cardiology, are consistent with established research and warnings. The recent data build on evidence that Avelox may induce aortic aneurysm and dissection in the same physiological manner it damages collagen in tendons.

Health professionals urge that aortic aneurysms and dissections be diagnosed quickly, and that victims seek immediate medical attention if they experience the following symptoms:

•    Severe abdominal, chest or back pain
•    Migrating pain in the back or legs
•    Dizziness and disorientation
•    Drastic change in blood pressure
•    Difficulty breathing or speaking
•    Loss of vision
•    Weakness on one side of the body


Avelox Treats Common Infections


Avelox (moxifloxacin), manufactured by Bayer AG, is a popular broad-spectrum antibacterial agent used to treat bacterial infections, including the following:

•    Sinus infections
•    Intra-abdominal infections
•    Skin infections
•    Lung infections—bronchitis and pneumonia


Avelox Side Effects


Treatment with fluoroquinolones like Avelox (moxifloxacin) has not only been associated with an increased risk for aortic aneurysm or dissection, but several other serious conditions, including:

•    Peripheral Neuropathy (permanent nerve damage)
•    Central nervous system disruption (convulsions, tremors and seizures)
•    Tendon rupture—commonly affecting lower extremities (Achilles tendon)
•    Severe allergic reactions (DRESS)
•    Hypersensitivity
•    Depression and anxiety
•    Renal Failure
•    Liver damage (hepatotoxicity)


The FDA public adverse reaction database lists thousands of reports blaming Avelox, and other fluoroquinolones, for causing the conditions listed above.
Side effects can occur within hours after starting a fluoroquinolone course. According to reports, side effects can last as long as nine years after treatment. Several cases reported the side effects continued even after treatment stopped.


Avelox Injury Risks


In November, 2015, the FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee released a report on the serious risks of antibiotics like Avelox. The report includes several specific cases of adverse reactions that patients suffered during the treatment of fluoroquinolones.

Patients of all ages treated with Avelox could be at risk of developing dangerous cardiac problems, including aortic dissection. Available data suggest the duration of treatment could be a likely factor, though adverse reactions have been reported as soon as the first dose.

A 2015 study, published in the BMJ Open Journal, followed 1.7 million patients taking a fluoroquinolone. The research found that within a month of finishing treatment, patients were more than twice as likely to experience aortic aneurysm as similar patients taking other courses of drugs. The study concluded in clear terms: “Fluoroquinolone prescriptions can contribute acutely to aneurysm progression and rupture.”


Avelox Lawyer & Compensation


Over 26 million Americans receive a prescription for a fluoroquinolone antibiotic like Avelox, Noroxin, Cipro or Levaquin each year. Medical officials note that their widespread use makes the drugs a public health concern. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claims about 30 percent of antibiotic prescriptions in the United States are “unnecessary.”

Fluoroquinolones like Avelox are often effective treatments for infections, but in some cases, alternatives should be considered. Responsibility for full disclosure of health hazards lies with the manufacturers and distributors of these drugs. Patients who receive Avelox treatment have a right to be warned about a potentially lethal risk to the aorta.


Aortic Rupture Lawsuits


When drug manufacturers fail to properly test their products before they are marketed and released to the public, and drug injury results, they may be held liable for damages in product liability and failure to warn lawsuits. An Avelox lawyer can file claims on injured plaintiffs’ behalf.

The Lyon Firm has experience engaging large drug corporations in drug injury litigation, and settlement is likely following a severe drug reaction or antibiotic injury.

photo of attorney Joe Lyon
A Voice for Those who have suffered

Why are these cases important?

By taking the initiative and filing drug injury lawsuits, plaintiffs can receive proper compensation and hold a corporation accountable for their negligent actions. Consumer safety depends largely on making sure companies operate within the law and within ethical boundaries.

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Questions about Pharmaceutical Litigation

Can I file a Lawsuit?

When drug makers and large corporations are negligent and produce dangerous products that lead to serious illness and injury, legal action can be necessary. In the current corporate environment, filing lawsuits is one of the only ways to keep drug companies from selling untested and dubious pharmaceuticals in the name of profit. Pharmaceutical litigation – through a lawsuit against a drug manufacturer- helps bring awareness to these companies as to the necessary changes that need to occur in order to keep people safe a healthy while taking a  certain drug. 

By taking the initiative and filing drug injury lawsuits, plaintiffs can receive proper compensation and hold a corporation accountable for their negligent actions. Consumer safety depends largely on making sure companies operate within the law and within ethical boundaries.

How does the drug label come into play?

In past litigation, it has been discovered that drug companies often delay adding serious side effects to a drug’s label due to concerns about the impact on the sales and marketing. If a drug carries more serious side effects, physicians and patients look for alternative treatments with less risk and the same or similar benefit.  As a result, there is a financial incentive not to strengthen the warning label.

However, the label is the source of information that physicians and patients rely upon when making these important health decisions.  There is no excuse for a company not to update its label when the science is sufficient to show an association with the medication.

How does this relate to the FDA?

Most experts would agree that the FDA is not designed nor does it have the resources to monitor every product through the post approval process once it has been granted clearance. Very simply, the volume of medical devices that are presented for review is too demanding, so, while the FDA is a good initial step in the process, the responsibility of providing safe and effective pharmaceutical companies remains on the companies that profit from the sales.

While the pharmaceutical companies have yielded more influence over the review process, ultimately, the law is very clear that it is the company’s responsibility to run the appropriate tests, track the data, and to identify the side effects and then warn consumers and physicians adequately and in a timely manner. Government approval is not a shield for liability. The Failure to timely and sufficiently warn of side effects operates as the primary cause of action for pharmaceutical claims.

Most importantly, the FDA and the government do not provide for compensation when someone is injured by a pharmaceutical product.  The civil justice system provides the means for an individual harmed by a pharmaceutical product to obtain justice and recover for the losses suffered.

Without the civil justice system, companies would not be required to pay for the harm they cause, and the public tax system, in terms of Medicare and Medicaid, would have to absorb that loss. In other words, without pharmaceutical lawsuits, the tax payers would pay for corporate malfeasance and neglect.

What are some examples of Pharmaceutical Settlements?

The current opioid crisis is a good example of how over-prescribing medications can lead to a huge public health crisis. Pain medications have been a great tool for physicians in treating a wide variety of conditions, however, the abuse of prescribing and using pain medication has turned into one of biggest areas of pharmaceutical litigation today.

It is not only opioids that have been prescribed in huge numbers. Other drugs that have only been tested in short trials are released to the market each year and injure patients. A few examples of drug injury:

Testosterone: Low T clinics are under investigation after many patients receiving testosterone therapy have reported strokes and heart attacks. Experts say doctors may be pushing the therapy when not every aging man requires testosterone therapy.

AntibioticsAntibiotic injuries are being reported at record rates as the drugs are prescribed more than ever before. Drug resistance and drug injury rates are on the rise, concerning the medical community and consumer protection attorneys.

Diabetes Drug Injury: Severe side effects are being reported by diabetes patients taking Invokana and other diabetes medications. Amputations and gangrene cases have opened the eyes of many taking the drugs, and lawsuits have been filed on their behalf.

Drug Contamination: Valsartan and Losartan contamination cases have raised the risk of patient cancer. Drug companies have failed to control the production process and put consumers at unnecessary risk.

Opioid Painkiller Lawsuits: Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and other large drug companies are deep in pharmaceutical settlement talks many years after the beginning of the opioid addiction crisis. Thousands of Americans die each year in opioid-related overdose deaths, many of which begin with doctors over-prescribing pain medications.

Depo Provera: Confidential settlement from Pfizer to resolve all of the claims currently pending in the New Jersey State coordinated litigation. Joseph Lyon represented 13 females who suffered osteoporosis due to the failure of Pfizer to properly warn them and their physicians.

Seroquel: AstraZeneca resolved claims for $198 Million regarding claims that the company failed to warn about risks of diabetes and excessive weight gain. The Lyon Firm participated in this settlement and represented numerous claimants. In addition to the individual claims, Federal prosecutors and authorities from several U.S. states investigated whether AstraZeneca promoted Seroquel off-label, or for uses not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The company announced a settlement of $520 million with the U.S. Justice Department over the matter.

Trasylol: Bayer resolved certain claims for $60 Million for patients who suffered heart failure and death as a result of the drug Trasylol.  Trasylol was a drug used to prevent excessive bleeding during heart surgery. The science unequivocally showed Trasylol can cause kidney damage, heart failure and strokes, and greatly increase patients’ risk of post-surgery death when compared to rival treatments.

In 2006, a study by Dr. Dennis Mangano was published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluding that the drug more than doubled the risk of renal failure.  After fourteen years on the market, Bayer suspended sales in November 2007. The Lyon Firm participated in this settlement.

Vioxx: Merck settled the outstanding Vioxx claims for $4.85 billion. The Lyon Firm participated in this settlement.  In 2004, after a study showed Vioxx doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes, Merck pulled Vioxx from the market. The case was then litigated with 16 trial ultimately going to the jury for a decision. Merck prevailed in 11 of the 16 trials.

Despite the settlement, Merck has not admitted that that Vioxx caused injuries. Each claim under the settlement was analyzed under an protocol that weighed such factors as a user’s age, their length of use, and their health risks such as obesity or hypertension. The individual extraordinary payout for a heart attack case was capped at $600,000.

How are the cases handled?

Pharmaceutical litigation is a complex area of law that combines dense regulation, developing science, and multi-jurisdictional questions of law. Most cases involving claims of drug injury and pharmaceuticals become centralized in the federal multidistrict litigation process. Pharmaceutical litigation involving injury claims are not in most cases not class action lawsuits, but they are very similar.

Due to the volume of cases and number of similar issues, most pharmaceutical cases are handled through Multidistrict Litigation (MDL). The multidistrict litigation procedure is guided by the Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation, where the case is centralized before one federal Judge for the purposes of pre-trial discovery.

The MDL process is appropriate where there are one or more common questions of fact in multiple cases pending in different federal district courts.  While there often are parallel state consolidated proceedings, the federal MDL process is generally supported by both Plaintiff and Defendants in these cases.

The MDL process allows for efficiency where there are millions of pages of documents, many expert witnesses across multiple disciplines from epidemiology, pharmacology, toxicology and the specific discipline for the relevant mechanism of injury.

Although 28 USC 1407 does not specify a specific number of cases required before the formation of an MDL is appropriate, the Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation reviews the Motions and conducts a hearing to determine whether consolidation is ripe given the number and location of the pending cases.

What is an MDL?

Most people understand what a class action lawsuit is, and fewer are aware of what an MDL refers to. It is important for a claimant to know, however, that an MDL is not a class action, as the term is often misapplied in this context, and the original court (home or transferee jurisdiction) retains the authority to present the case at trial.

In most MDL settings, the case is resolved by way of settlement or a summary judgment motion on the questions of science (i.e., Daubert Motion). If either settlement or dismissal on Motion occurs, the case is not remanded to the originating court. If the case is not resolved at the MDL, then the case may be remanded to original jurisdiction for additional discovery on the case specifics and ultimately trial.

Why Hire the Lyon Firm?

Our Firm will help you find the answers.  The Firm has the experience, resources and dedication to take on difficult and emotional cases and help our clients obtain the justice for the wrong they have suffered. 

 Experience:  Joe Lyon is an experienced Cincinnati Pharmaceutical Lawyer. The Lyon Firm has 17 years of experience and success representing individuals and plaintiffs in all fifty states, and in a variety of complex civil litigation matters. Pharmaceutical lawsuits can be complex and require industry experts to determine the root cause of an accident or injury. Mr. Lyon has worked with experts nationwide to assist individuals understand why an injury occurred and what can be done to improve their lives in the future. Some cases may go to a jury trial, though many others can be settled out of court.

Resources/Dedication: Mr. Lyon has worked with experts in the fields of accident reconstruction, biomechanics, epidemiology, metallurgy, pharmacology, toxicology, human factors, workplace safety, life care planning, economics, and virtually every medical discipline in successfully representing Plaintiffs across numerous areas of law. The Lyon Firm is dedicated to building the strongest cases possible for clients and their critical interests.

Our Victories

The Lyon Firm aggressively, professionally, and passionately advocates for injured individuals and families against companies due to a drug to obtain just compensation under the law. 

IN RE: VIOXX

Nationwide Consolidation in U.S. District Court, E. Dist. of LA. 

This pharmaceutical case involved claims that the blockbuster painkiller was causing heart attacks and strokes in consumers. The FDA ultimately recalled the medication. Merck settled the outstanding Vioxx claims for $4.85 billion following multiple trials in both state and federal courts. Joe Lyon was co-counsel in a number of individual claims that were successfully resolved in the federal MDL. The funds received for Lyon Firm clients helped several elderly clients with additional medical and home health care.

IN RE: TRASYLOL

Nationwide Consolidation in Civil Complex Litigation Center Philadelphia, PA. 

A pharmaceutical case involving claims that a popular surgical medication was causing kidney failure and death. The FDA recalled the medication in question, but not before thousands of patients died due to related complications. Bayer resolved certain claims for $60 Million for patients who suffered kidney failure and death as a result of using the drug Trasylol. Joseph Lyon represented a widow from Kentucky whose husband died due to kidney failure following the administration of Trasylol. The recovered funds assisted the surviving family members in resuming farming operations.