{"id":535446,"date":"2010-04-20T12:18:47","date_gmt":"2010-04-20T16:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aboutlawsuits.com\/?p=9784"},"modified":"2010-04-20T12:18:47","modified_gmt":"2010-04-20T16:18:47","slug":"levaquin-class-action-lawsuit-filed-over-risk-of-tendon-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/535446","title":{"rendered":"Levaquin Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over Risk of Tendon Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Texas woman has filed a class action suit over Levaquin, claiming that the popular antibiotic increases the risk of tendon ruptures and other tendon injuries.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Levaquin class action lawsuit<\/a> was filed on April 8 in the Beaumont Division of the Eastern District of Texas by plaintiff Lisa Presley. The complaint names Johnson and Johnson and its subsidiary Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals as defendants, alleging that the Levaquin side effects<\/a> led to Presley suffering from Achilles tendonitis, which she says led to severe and permanent injuries.<\/p>\n

Presley charges the defendants with negligence, strict product liability, failure to warn, breach of warranties, fraud, and violation of consumer protection laws, among others. The Levaquin suit is seeking damages for economic losses, disability, disfigurement, pain, suffering, mental anguish, physical impairment and medical expenses on behalf of Presley and seeks class action status on behalf of other similary situated individuals.<\/p>\n

Levaquin<\/a> (levofloxacin) is part of a class of medications known as fluoroquinolones, which was approved by the FDA in December 1996. It is prescribed to prevent infection by stopping the reproduction of bacteria. However, it has also been found to be toxic to the tendons, leading to an increased risk of tendon damage, including debilitating ruptures of the Achilles tendon.<\/p>\n

In July 2008, the FDA required that a \u201cblack box\u201d tendon damage warning<\/a> be added about the side effects of Levaquin and other similar antibiotics. However, consumer advocates called for stronger warnings about the Levaquin tendon rupture problems at least two years earlier, with Public Citizen filing a petition with the FDA in 2006 insisting that consumers and the medical community be provided with clearer warnings about the risk of tendon damage from the class of antibiotics.<\/p>\n

There are several hundred individual Levaquin tendon rupture lawsuits<\/a> already filed in federal courts throughout the country, which have been consolidated and centralized in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL). There are also more than 100 other cases pending in various state courts throughout the country. All of the lawsuits involve allegations that the drug makers failed to adequately warn about the increased risk of tendon ruptures and other tendon injuries that can occur from the side effects of Levaquin.<\/p>\n

In February, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim identified the first six Levaquin suits to go to trial<\/a> in the federal MDL. The cases will act as \u201cbellwether\u201d trials, helping parties involved in the litigation gauge how juries will respond to evidence and testimony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Texas woman has filed a class action suit over Levaquin, claiming that the popular antibiotic increases the risk of tendon ruptures and other tendon injuries.\u00a0 The\u00a0Levaquin class action lawsuit was filed on April 8 in the Beaumont Division of the Eastern District of Texas by plaintiff Lisa Presley. The complaint names Johnson and Johnson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3957,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-535446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}