Tasigna Atherosclerosis Lawsuit News

Novartis haste in rushing Tasigna to market has cost patients their lives

Novartis put company profits ahead of human life when they rushed Tasigna to market without properly testing it first

Wednesday, August 8, 2018 - Sales representatives from Novartis, maker of the drug Tasigna, illegally paid specialty pharmacies to recommend one dangerous and often deadly anti-cancer chemotherapy drug over another. According to www.reuters.com 'Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp will pay $390 million to settle U.S. charges that it paid specialty pharmacies illegal kickbacks in exchange for inducing patients to refill certain medications. These medications included Tasigna a potent, toxic, and often deadly form of chemotherapy used to treat the most serious forms of cancer. Reuters reported, in addition, "Two of the pharmacies in the case - Accredo Health Group Inc, a unit of Medco Health Solutions and BioScrip Inc - previously settled charges and collectively paid $75 million."

The objective of Novartis' illegal bribery scheme was to maintain market share that the company's revolutionary breakthrough anti-cancer drug Gleevec's had achieved. Gleevec's patent was set to expire in about a year leaving Novartis open to competition from cheaper, generic drugs copying Gleevec yet charging only about ten cents the dollar. Such competition would have no doubt put Novartis out of the chemotherapy business in a very short time. Rather than lose their hard-earned billion dollar business, Novartis released Tasigna to replace Gleevec. Novartis sales reps paid specialty pharmacists in the form of bogus teaching schemes and illegal sales contests to refill Gleevec prescriptions with Tasigna. According to the FDA, Tasigna was rushed to market by receiving the agency's "Orphan Drug designation, which provides incentives to assist and encourage the development of drugs for rare diseases." No mention was ever made to patients of Tasigna's deadly side effects including sudden death, amputation, and permanent paralysis.

Novartis now faces hundreds of lawsuits from cancer patients in remission from the disease only to find themselves with a Tasigna death sentence. Plaintiffs are suing Novartis claiming that the company knew of Tasigna's deadly side effects and deliberately kept the facts from their sales representative, who it turn mislead pharmacists and in the end failed to warn Tasigna patients. Specialty pharmacists refilled thousands of Gleevec prescriptions with Tasigna causing an even more deadly disease, atherosclerosis. Patients with atherosclerosis develop a narrowing of the arteries leading to the feet, brain, and heart preventing the extremities and the vital organs from getting a sufficient amount of blood. Tasigna patients have reported necrotic tissue death requiring amputation of the toes and feet, paralyzing strokes and sudden death from heart attack. Tasigna lawyers representing patients cases are offering free consultations to families or individuals affected by Tasigna cancer treatments.

Tasigna, first approved by the FDA in 2007 to treat patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). After being flooded with adverse event reports the FDA demanded that Tasigna place a boxed warning alerting oncologists and cancer patients about the risk of abnormal heart rhythm (QT prolongation) and sudden death. The FDA also warns Tasigna patients that the "Severe side effects of taking Tasigna include myelosuppression, blockages in the heart or arteries (cardiac and arterial vascular occlusive events)."

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Lawyers for Tasigna Atherosclerosis Lawsuits

Attorneys handling Tasigna lawsuits for leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and multiple myeloma offer free, no-obligation case review for individuals and families who believe they may have grounds to file a Tasigna lawsuit. Working on a contingency basis, these attorneys are committed to never charging legal fees unless they win compensation in your Tasigna lawsuit. The product liability litigators handling Roundup claims at the Onder Law Firm have a strong track record of success in representing families harmed by dangerous drugs and consumer products.