March 3, 2022
New studies confirm that those who have taken the popular interstitial cystitis (IC) medication, Elmiron, have a very significant risk of developing permanent vision loss including pigmentary maculopathy and macular degeneration.
Interstitial cystitis is a bladder condition that causes chronic pain, discomfort, and urinary frequency. As many as 12 million people in the U.S. suffer from IC.
Developed and manufactured by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a corporate subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, Elmiron was approved by the FDA in 1996 and has since been a popular treatment option for IC. Elmiron is currently the only medication approved by the FDA specifically to treat IC-related bladder pain.
The discovery of Elmiron’s highly negative effects on the eye were reported as early as 2018 when doctors from the Emory Eye Center in Atlanta, Georgia started to notice a strange trend. They had seen 6 patients, all long-time users of Elmiron, all of whom were found to have abnormal damage to the macula region of their eyes and all of whom were diagnosed with pigmentary maculopathy. The renowned Emory Eye Center published their initial findings suggesting Elmiron’s toxicity to the retinal tissue of the human eye.
Given the severity of injury caused by a prescription drug, further studies regarding Elmiron safety profile were immediately conducted and the results were alarming. Comprehensive peer-reviewed studies confirmed that Elmiron can be highly toxic to the sensitive retina tissue in the back of the eye. About 25% of patients who used Elmiron displayed signs of maculopathy or significant eye damage.
Further studies consistently demonstrated that prolonged use of Elmiron can be linked to maculopathy, which is a broad term used to describe any disease or pathologic condition affecting the macula of the eye. However, macular damage from Elmiron may often be misdiagnosed as age-related macular degeneration in patients. Patients with macular eye damage or maculopathy should advise their physician about all medications, including any use of Elmiron.
If you took Elmiron and were subsequently diagnosed with eye damage, vision loss, macular degeneration, or maculopathy, you may be able to seek compensation. For a free case consultation, don’t wait. The attorneys at Cellino Law have decades of experience in cases against Johnson & Johnson and Janssen and are here to answer any of your questions 24/7. Call us today at 888-888-8888.