Phenylpropanolamine & Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) Lawsuit

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Phenylpropanolamine is a drug commonly used as an ingredient in cold medications as a decongestant and in many over the counter weight management aids as an appetite suppressant. The chemical has been used for these purposes for over 50 years. Phenylpropanolamine is available alone or as a drug combination containing other medications. Clinical studies have found that consuming medications containing phenylpropanolamine can increase an individuals risk of developing many complications, such as severe disability, pulmonary arterial hypertension, hemorrhagic stroke, and death. These complications mainly affect women that have used weight loss aids containing phenylpropanolamine. Experts place the risk of developing these serious complications at 16 times higher than for people who have not used products containing phenylpropanolamine.

Phenylpropanolamine can dangerously increase the blood pressure of the individuals who take the drug, in some cases causing the individual to develop pulmonary arterial hypertension. Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a life-threatening condition characterised by chronic high blood pressure, mainly affecting the blood vessels in the lungs. The increased blood pressure causes the heart to overwork itself and eventually causes heart failure. There is no cure for pulmonary arterial hypertension and the mortality rate is high, with most deaths occuring within 5 years of receiving a positive diagnosis of the condition. Symptoms of pulmonary arterial hypertension may not appear for up to ten years after the onset of the disorder, causing a lot of damage to the heart and blood vessels before the individual realized that anything is wrong. In most cases, pulmonary arterial hypertension is dioagnosed after the condition has caused a serious complication that requires hospitalization.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension can cause a wide range of serious complications, adding to the deadliness of the condition. Heart failure causes the highest number of fatalities associated with the condition. Individuals with pulmonary arterial hypertension are also at a high risk of developing blood clots, dangerous because the clots can travel through the blood stream causing an embolism if they get stuck. These individuals are also at a greater risk of having a heart attack or stroke. Treatment options for pulmonary arterial hypertension are used to control the symptoms and reduce the risk of complications for the condition. Clinical researchers are attemping to find a cure for pulmonary arterial hypertension, but any medical advances in that area are many years away.

Because individuals taking phenylpropanolamine increased their risk of developing deadly side effects such as pulmonary arterial hypertension by such a large amount, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to the public advising them to refrain from taking any medications containing phenylpropanolamine. They also issued a request to the manufacturers asking them to stop adding phenylpropanolamine to their products and discontinue marketing for any product containing phenylpropanolamine. Many companies voluntarily changed the formulas of the medications they manufactured so that they would no longer contain the drug. The drug was then removed from over the counter sale and is no longer widely available. It is estimated that medications containing phenylpropanolamine are responsible for over 500 instances of severe complications annually.

Do I have a Phenylpropanolamine or Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Lawsuit?

The Defective Drug Litigation Group at our law firm is an experienced team of trial lawyers that focus exclusively on the representation of plaintiffs in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH), Primary Pulmonary Hypertension (PPH) and Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (IPAH) lawsuits. We are handling individual litigation nationwide and currently accepting new Phenylpropanolamine cases in all 50 states.

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