REGINA - A lawyer is attempting to launch class action lawsuits in two provinces against the makers of Avandia, a popular Type 2 diabetes drug.
Tony Merchant of the Merchant Law Group filed statements of claim in Saskatchewan and Ontario on Monday, alleging GlaxoSmithKline should have done more to warn consumers of the drug's risks. Merchant says statements of claim will be filed in other provinces later this week.
"(The plaintiffs) have suffered heart attacks or suffered loss of their vision, and in some cases they have died," Merchant alleged in an interview late Monday.
"Every drug does some good or bad," he continued. "The question is whether people were sufficiently warned.
Avandia is prescribed for Type 2 diabetics to control blood sugar by increasing the body's sensitivity to insulin.
U.S. government health advisers made a non-binding recommendation to the Food and Drug Administration on Monday that evidence of an increased risk of heart attack from using Avandia doesn't merit its removal from the market.
However, the panellists said the drug's warning label should be updated and there should be additional study.
The manufacturer has argued that there is no increased risk, citing its own analysis of studies of Avandia, also called rosiglitazone.
Health Canada, which initially approved Avandia in 2000, is doing its own analysis of study findings.
Merchant's lawsuit filed in Saskatchewan alleges that Iris Edith Wall began to have chest pain, shortness of breath and heart failure within two months of beginning to take Avandia.
It alleges that within a year, she suffered at heart attack and died at age 75.
A statement of claim contains allegations which have yet to proven in court.
The Attorney General of Canada is also named as a defendant in the statements.
Merchant says the statements of claim are a first step. The courts must first certify them before they can proceed as class-action lawsuits.
More than one million prescriptions for Avandia were filled in Canada last year, according to IMS Health Canada.
Earlier this year, Bonnie Latimer launched her own lawsuit in Manitoba against the makers of Avandia, alleging the drug caused permanent injury to her eyes after she began taking it in 2003.
Merchant says Latimer and others who are launching their own lawsuits would do better if they joined one of his class-action lawsuits.
"It will be very difficult for an individual to face the financial burdens of trying to win against a company of this size," Merchant said.
Merchant has launched other class-action lawsuits, including one on behalf of victims of the spraying of Agent Orange defoliant at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick. He also negotiated a compensation deal with the federal government on behalf of 10,000 survivors of aboriginal residential school abuse.
