What are the details of the settlement?
Daiichi officials have agreed to pay $300 million to resolve patient suits over its Benicar, Benicar HCT, Azor and Tribenzor blood-pressure treatments. The settlement comes more than two years after the Japanese Pharmaceutical giant paid $39 million to resolve the U.S. government’s allegations that it paid illegal kickbacks to doctors who prescribed the medicines.
Who can qualify to be part of the settlement?
Individuals who used Benicar prior to May 2015 and suffered or may be suffering one or more of the following injuries:
Am I automatically a part of this settlement if I took Benicar prior to that date and suffered an injury?
No, if you or a loved one was a Benicar user that suffered one of the qualifying injuries, it is essential that you sign up with an affiliated law firm to be part of any settlement. There is a deadline of 8/23/17 to qualify, so it is essential that individuals contact a firm as soon as possible to sign up. It would be wise to sign up as soon as possible to ensure that paperwork and processing do not prevent a case from being filed on time.
Sign up for the Benicar Settlement here
How does the settlement and payouts work?
Under terms of the settlement offer, the drug maker will pay $300 million in financial compensation to resolve claims involving certain injuries stemming from the use of Benicar prior to May 2015. The settlement will provide larger payouts to users who suffered more serious injuries from the drug. The accord requires 95 percent of all plaintiffs who’ve sued to agree to the terms.
What is the deadline to sign up?
A court-ordered census for all filed and unfiled claims must be filed by August 25, and the deadline for the Benicar injury settlement will require eligible plaintiffs to submit an “Opt In Package”, with at least 95% of all claimants agreeing to accept the offer before the settlement will be finalized. Therefore, it is important that immediate steps be taken if you believe that you or a loved one may be eligible to settle a Benicar injury claim.
More information on the proposed settlement
The settlement was reached as a federal judge in Camden, New Jersey, prepared to schedule the first of more than 2,000 consolidated Benicar cases for trial, said Adam Slater, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers who helped negotiate the accord.
“This is a good settlement for thousands of people who suffered serious gastrointestinal problems because of this drug,’’ According to plaintiff’s attorney Adam Slater.
The defendent’s statement
“A settlement is in the best interest of all, and will allow us to continue our focus on bringing to market innovative medicines that help people live healthy and meaningful lives,’’ Glenn Gormley, the company’s executive chairman, said in a statement. The company didn’t admit wrongdoing as part of the accord.
Benicar Lawsuit History
Benicar users began suing the company in 2014 claiming executives knew the medicine could cause abdominal pain, diarrhea, diverticulitis, colitis and nausea and hid that information, Slater said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Benicar in 2002. When later studies linked the drug and its successors to intestinal damage, regulators ordered Daiichi officials in 2013 to warn about that risk.
Two years later, the company agreed to pay the federal government $34 million and state Medicaid programs $5 million to resolve a whistle-blower suit. The complaint accused the drugmaker of violating federal laws by paying speaker fees to physicians who wrote large numbers of prescriptions.
The settlement also resolves claims against Forest Laboratories Inc., which sold Benicar and other Daiichi’s blood-pressure medicines in the U.S.
The consolidated Benicar case is In Re: Benicar Products Liability Litigation, 14-MD-2606, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
