Invokana Wrongful Death Lawsuit. Scott Martin from Alabama alleges that the side effects of the blockbuster diabetic drug Invokana caused the wrongful death of his wife. According to Martin, his wife suffered severe diabetic ketoacidosis and congestive heart failure, leading to her death.
Martin filed his claim, on behalf of himself and his late wife, Sheila Martin, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, naming Johnson & Johnson and its Janssen Pharmaceuticals subsidiary as defendants.
Martin claims that Janssen and Johnson & Johnson actively hid the Invokana risks from patients and doctors, providing false and misleading information on the warning label.
What is Invokana?
Invokana (canagliflozin) was the first member of a new generation diabetes drug to hit the market, known as sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors.
SGLT-2 inhibitors alter normal kidney functions to increase the amount of sugar excreted in the urine. Other members of this new class include Farxiga, Jardiance, Invokamet among others.
Invokana Side Effects
Invokana filters sugar out of the blood by the kidneys and this sugar is expelled as a waste. As a result of this, the body loses the carbohydrates that it needs to function, and the kidneys become stressed and damaged by sugar molecules.
Because of a reduced amount of circulating sugar, the body goes into “starvation” mode where it begins to break down muscle tissue and stored fat to generate ketones as fuel. This condition is called “diabetic ketoacidosis” and can be deadly if left untreated.
Many FDA Invokana Warnings
Invokana was released in March 2013, and the drug makers have aggressively marketed the drug in an attempt to convince doctors to switch their patients to the medication.
Over the past few years, the FDA has required a number of Invokana warning updates, as new safety risks have been linked to the medication.
In June 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required the drug makers to add a new Invokana safety warning, highlighting that the diabetic medication may increase the risk of acute kidney injury and kidney failure.
The FDA has also required new Invokana warnings about a risk of diabetic ketoacidosis, a serious medical condition associated with elevated levels of acid in the blood.
Based on new data from two large clinical trials, the FDA in May 2017 concluded that the type 2 diabetes medicine canagliflozin (Invokana, Invokamet, Invokamet XR) causes an increased risk of leg and foot amputations.
The FDA is requiring new warnings, including their most prominent Boxed Warning, to be added to the canagliflozin drug labels to describe this risk.
Double Risk of leg amputations
Final results from two clinical trials – the CANVAS (Canagliflozin Cardiovascular Assessment Study) and CANVAS-R (A Study of the Effects of Canagliflozin on Renal Endpoints in Adult Participants With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus) – showed that leg and foot amputations occurred about twice as often in patients treated with canagliflozin compared to patients treated with placebo, which is an inactive treatment.
Invokana Federal Multidistrict Litigation
Since December 2016, all federally-filed Invokana injury lawsuits have been consolidated as part of the federal Invokana multidistrict litigation (MDL), which is centralized before U.S. District Judge Brian Martinotti in the District of New Jersey to coordinate discovery and pretrial proceedings.
If you or someone you know succumbed to an Invokana Ketoacidosis, Invokana wrongful death, amputations or kidney failure from taking Invokana for the treatment of their type 2 diabetes, please call us for further information at 214-390-3189. Dr. Shezad Malik Law Firm is investigating Invokana Ketoacidosis, wrongful death or kidney failure from taking Invokana for the treatment of their type 2 diabetes.