Missouri Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Despite recent black box warnings on Levaquin, an antibiotic used to treat a variety of bacterial infections, many people are still suffering from its serious side effects. In West Virginia, three individuals who are plagued with severe tendon-related injuries filed separate lawsuits against Johnson and Johnson, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical and Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development.

Levaquin belongs to a group of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones that have been known to cause tendon injures. Studies suggest that fluoroquinolones can degrade tendon cells by causing apoptosis, or cell death. The damaged cells weaken and can then tear or rupture more easily. Many of the people who take Levaquin are 60 and older, the same group of people who are most at risk for tendon injury while taking the drug.

The three plaintiffs also contend that treatment for Levaquin side effects include corticosteroids – the same drug that greatly increases the risk of tendon rupture when combined with this antibiotic. The suit declares that the defendants did not properly highlight the drug’s tenotoxic effects in their marketing campaigns. Instead, Levaquin’s safety record and minor adverse side effects such as diarrhea and nausea where more prominently advertised while the severe warning of tendon rupture did not receive any special attention.