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Uloric Class Action Lawsuit

Uloric Class Action Lawsuit

Takeda Pharmaceuticals is facing lawsuits from people who took the gout medication Uloric and suffered a heart attack, thrombotic stroke, or death. Uloric is also linked to renal failure and kidney disease.

What You Can Do & How We Can Help

The Schmidt Firm, PLLC is currently accepting Uloric induced injury cases in all 50 states. If you or somebody you know has been diagnosed with a heart attack, stroke, or kidney damage, you should contact our lawyers immediately for a free case consultation. Please use the form below to contact our Defective Drug Litigation Group or call toll free 24 hours a day at (866) 920-0753.

What is Uloric?

Uloric (febuxostat) is a prescription medication for the treatment of gout, a painful type of arthritis that occurs when high levels of uric acid deposit needle-like crystals in the joints, causing inflammation. Uloric treats gout by reducing uric acid levels.

Uloric Side Effects

Uloric Lawsuits

A growing number of Uloric lawsuits have been filed against Takeda Pharmaceuticals by people who suffered heart attacks or strokes. For example, in November 2019, a woman in Illinois filed a Uloric Lawsuit (PDF) after suffering major heart problems that required surgery — Case: 1:19-cv-07716.

Is there a Class Action Lawsuit for Uloric?

Uloric lawsuits are not consolidated into a class action lawsuit. Instead, they are individual lawsuits. In the future, it is possible that Uloric lawsuits will be centralized into a federal Multi-District Litigation (MDL).

Uloric MDL

The MDL process has many of the same advantages of a class action, but unlike a class action, members do not have to share the payout from a settlement or jury verdict. Instead, each case can have its own outcome.

Uloric Black Box Warning

Uloric may cause serious side effects, including heart-related deaths. Call your doctor or get emergency medical help right away if you have any of the following symptoms, especially if they are new, worse, or worry you:

  • chest pain
  • numbness or weakness in one side of your body
  • shortness of breath or trouble breathing
  • slurring of speech
  • dizziness, fainting or feeling lightheaded
  • rapid or irregular heartbeat
  • sudden blurry vision
  • sudden severe headache

Uloric Linked to Higher Risk of Heart Attack, Stroke Death

In May 2019, the FDA added a Boxed Warning to Uloric after a safety study found a higher risk of heart attacks, stroke, and death when Uloric was compared to another gout drug called allopurinol.

What is the Risk?

In November 2019, Health Canada issued a Safety Warning about the risk of death from Uloric. In a major clinical trial, 4.3% of patients on Uloric died from a serious heart problem, such as a heart attack or stroke.

What Should I Do?

Patients with a history of heart problems should tell their healthcare professional. Uloric is not recommended except as a last resort, and only in patients who can’t take other gout medications (such as allopurinol). Patients should also seek emergency medical attention if they develop symptoms of a heart attack or stroke.

Uloric and Heart Attacks

Heart attacks occur when a blood clot clogs a vessel that supplies fresh blood to the heart muscle. Within a few minutes, the part of the heart that does not have blood begins to die. Heart attacks kill about 500,000 people in the U.S. every year.

Symptoms of a Heart Attack

  • Chest pain or pressure
  • Aching sensation in your chest or arms that may spread to your neck, jaw or back
  • Nausea, heartburn, or abdominal pain
  • Shortness of breath
  • Cold sweat
  • Fatigue
  • Sudden dizziness or feeling light-headed

Uloric and Thrombotic Stroke

Uloric is linked to a risk of thrombotic strokes, which are strokes that are caused by blood clots in the brain. These blood clots clog vessels and cut off circulation to parts of the brain, which causes brain tissue to die. Strokes kill about 140,000 people in the U.S. each year. Someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds

Symptoms of a Thrombotic Stroke

The symptoms of a stroke depend on what part of the brain is affected, but they tend to occur suddenly on one side of the body. These symptoms may include:

  • Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg
  • Drooping face muscles
  • Sudden confusion
  • Unable to talk or understand speech
  • Sudden trouble walking, loss of balance, or falling down
  • Headache
  • Sudden vision problems

Uloric and Kidney Damage

Uloric is eliminated from the body by the kidneys, but it has not been studied for safety in patients with severe kidney damage (also called “end-stage kidney impairment”). Due to the potential risk of kidney failure and other unknown long-term risks, Takeda Pharmaceuticals recommends that patients with severe renal impairment shout not take any more than 40-mg of Uloric once-daily.

What is Renal Failure?

Renal failure (also called “End Stage Renal Disease” or ESRD) occurs when the kidneys do not work properly. In some cases, the kidneys suddenly become unable to filter toxins from the blood. Renal failure can also be a progressive long-term complication of gout.

Symptoms of Renal Failure

  • Less urine or too much
  • Swelling in the legs, ankles, and feet
  • Fluid retention
  • Unexplained shortness of breath
  • Drowsiness
  • Nausea and loss of appetite
  • Confusion

Uloric Whistleblower Lawsuit

Takeda has been hit with a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Dr. Helen Ge, a former safety consultant. She alleges that the company withheld risk information regarding Uloric.

Dr. Ge said that Takeda failed to report that Uloric could interact with several other medications. She also alleges that Uloric side effects may include bone marrow failure, severe bleeding, and kidney failure. This lawsuit is not part of a Uloric class action — it is an individual lawsuit that was filed in federal court in Massachusetts.

Can I Join a Class Action?

The Schmidt Firm, PLLC is nationally recognized as a class action law firm, but we are not filing a Uloric class action. Instead, we are filing individual lawsuits for people who suffered heart attacks, strokes, renal failure, or wrongful death lawsuits.

About Class Actions

Class actions are typically filed by one person on behalf of everyone else who has a similar legal claim. If compensation is awarded through a settlement or jury verdict, everyone who joins the class action shares the payout.

Why Our Law Firm is Filing Individual Lawsuits as Opposed to a Class Action

When individuals have very serious physical injuries after taking dangerous medications, class actions can have major disadvantages. Our law firm holds drug-makers accountable for selling dangerous medications. We focus on helping individuals with serious injuries seek financial compensation for pain and suffering, medical expenses, lost income, and more.

Do I have a Uloric Lawsuit?

The Schmidt Firm, PLLC is currently accepting Uloric induced injury cases in all 50 states. If you or somebody you know has been diagnosed with a heart attack, stroke, or kidney damage, you should contact our lawyers immediately for a free case consultation. Please use the form below to contact our Defective Drug Litigation Group or call toll free 24 hours a day at (866) 920-0753.

Attention Lawyers: We consider a referral from another law firm to be one of the greatest compliments. If your firm is interested in referring us a case or for us to send you a list of previous award judgments and/or average referral fees, please visit the Lawyer Referral section of our website.

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