Kidney Injury Lawsuit Filed Against Makers of Prevacid, Prilosec and Nexium

The side effects of Nexium, Prilosec and Prevacid allegedly caused a Louisiana woman to suffer a serious kidney injury, according to allegations raised in a recent product liability lawsuit brought against the makers of the popular heartburn drugs. 

Denise Crandell filed a complaint (PDF) last week in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, indicating that AstraZeneca, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and Procter & Gamble failed to adequately warn consumers or the medical community about the risk of kidney injury from Nexium, Prilosec, Prevacid and other proton pump inhibitors (PPI).

According to the lawsuit, Crandell took a number of different heartburn and acid reflux drugs between 2013 and 2016, including Nexium, Prilosec and Prevacid, which allegedly caused serious injuries to her kidneys.

In recent years, a number of independent studies have raised serious questions about the safety of the drugs, suggesting that users may face an increased risk of acute kidney injury, acute interstitial nephritis, chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal failure. However, Crandell’s lawsuit indicates that the drug makers hid the kidney risks to keep profits high.

“Defendants concealed and continue to conceal their knowledge of PPIs’ unreasonably dangerous risks from Plaintiff, her physicians, other consumers, and the medical community,” the lawsuit states. “Specifically, Defendants failed to adequately inform consumers and the prescribing medical community about the magnified risk of kidney injuries related to the use of PPIs.”

The case joins dozens of similar Nexium lawsuits, Prilosec lawsuits and Prevacid lawsuits brought by individuals nationwide in recent months, and it is widely expected that thousands of additional cases may be filed in the coming months and years, as more individuals and families learn that kidney problems experienced in recent years may have been caused by the use of a proton pump inhibitor.

The lawsuit notes that the first study linking PPIs to kidney injuries dates back to 1992, three years after the first proton pump inhibitor (PPI) was put on the market. However, it would be more than a decade before warnings were placed on the drugs’ labels.

The FDA required the drug makers to update the warnings in December 2014, indicating for the first time that that there may be a risk of acute interstitial nephritis (AIN) risk from Nexium, Prilosec and other proton pump inhibitors. This condition involves inflammation of the kidneys, but plaintiffs maintain that the warnings do not go far enough to raise awareness about the serious risks associated with these medications.

In April 2015, a study published in the medical journal CMAJ Open found that Nexium, Prilosec, and other PPIs cause a 3 times higher risk of acute interstitial nephritis, but were also associated with a 2.5 times higher risk of acute kidney injury, which involves an abrupt loss of kidney function.

Earlier this year, a study published in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine built on these findings, examining data on more than 10,000 participants over a period of more than 10 years, finding that the drugs were also associated with a higher incidence of chronic kidney disease.

In April 2016, researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs found that users of Nexium, Prilosec or other PPIs may be 96% more likely to develop kidney failure and 28% more likely to develop chronic kidney disease after five years of use.