Virginia Man Files Lawsuit Against Amylin Pharmaceuticals

Recently, a Virginia man filed a personal injury lawsuit against Amylin Pharmaceuticals in the San Diego Superior Court.  The lawsuit lists the manufacturer, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, and the co-marketer, Eli Lilly and Company, as defendants.  The man filed the lawsuit over Byetta®, an injectible diabetes drug. 

According to reports, Amylin negotiated with the FDA to inform patients of the risk of acute pancratitis by adding "warnings" on the drug's label in 2007.  The inclusin of the warning resulted from 30 reported cases of acute pancreatitus from using Byetta®. 

The plaintiff's personal injury lawsuit states that the manufacturer, "failed to adequately warn prescribing physicians of the risk of pancreatitis, of measures needed to properly assess the appropriateness of prescribing the drug to certain categories of patients, and of measures doctors and patients could and should take to minimize the risk."

The plaintiff was hospitalized in December of 2007 for pancreatitus, which is essentially inflammation of the pancreas.  Pancreatitus is known to cause internal bleeding and, in some cases, death.  The plaintiff and his attorney claim that the label change was not adequate. 

Orlando.injuryboard.com is reporting that, "two days after the lawsuit was filed, the FDA reported that six cases of hermorrhagic or necrotizing pancreatitis in patients who were prescribed ByettaR and two of those six victims died. And just yesterday Amylin and Lilly reported that four more people have died from taking ByettaR."