Published August 30, 2012 on LawsuitInformation.org
In early August, a Minnesota man filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of Levaquin, Ortho McNeil Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a manufacturing unit of Johnson & Johnson. The man, Richard Johnson, stated in his pharmaceutical liability claim that the drug’s manufacturer neglected to supply adequate health warnings about the use of Levaquin and its link to tendon rupture.
Johnson suffered a rotator cuff tear, and has linked his use of Levaquin, an antibiotic prescribed to treat urinary tract infections, pneumonia, meningitis, cellulitis, and respiratory tract infections, to the damage inflicted on his rotator cuff tendons. Johnson’s case now becomes an addition to the products liability litigation regarding Levaquin in the District Court, District of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Levaquin lawsuits have been combined into multidistrict litigation (MDL) in Minnesota.
In 2008, in response to reports of severe tendon damage and tendonitis, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required manufacturers of fluoroquinolones, a category of antibiotic which includes Levaquin, update the black box label on their drugs to include a detailed and complete warning about the risk of life-altering tendon deterioration and rupture. It has been reported that the manufacturer of Levaquin made a paltry effort at such drug transparency in an attempt to increase drug distribution and profits.
