Elmiron® (Pentosan Polysulfate Sodium) Lawsuit

Medication Elmiron® and Serious Eye Injury

ELMIRON® (Pentosan Polysulfate Sodium) and Serious Eye Injury:

Elmiron® is a drug manufactured by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. which comes in 100 mg capsules with the recommended dose being 300 mg/day; one 100 mg capsule, 3 times per day, taken by mouth.

Recently, research has linked women taking Elmiron® for painful bladder syndrome with a progressive eye disease diagnosed by ophthalmologists as retinal pigmentary maculopathy, pattern dystrophy or age-related macular degeneration.

This is a serious eye injury characterized by symptoms that include:

  • Change in eye color
  • Blurred vision, usually in the center of one’s field of vision
  • Poor light to dark transition
  • Difficulty reading
  • Dark spots in vision
  • Straight lines appear curved
  • Less vivid colors

About Painful Bladder Syndrome

This drug is a weak anti-coagulant similar to heparin and is prescribed to treat discomfort or pain of the bladder due to Interstitial Cystitis (IC), also known as painful bladder syndrome. This condition is typically chronic, has variable symptoms and is found mostly in women but is also prescribed to men for this condition. Most people are diagnosed starting in their early 40s. There is no cure or effective treatment for IC at this time. This condition is usually diagnosed and treated by a urologist or gynecologist

Interstitial Cystitis is a condition marked by symptoms of urinary urgency, frequency, nocturia and painful urinary symptoms or discomfort, pressure in the bladder and pelvic area, without other identified cause. While causation is not completely known, it is believed that a defect in the layer of mucus that protects the cells lining the bladder may permit substances from urine to seep through the tissues and cause inflammation. This disorder is not a urinary tract infection.[1]

Taken Elmiron®? Suffering from Macular Degeneration Symptoms?

If you have been taking the medication Elmiron® and are suffering from any of the macular degeneration symptoms listed above, you may be entitled to compensation. Click, Chat or call 1800LAW1010 24/7 for a free case evaluation.

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Awards and Recognition

About Elmiron®

Elmiron® was approved by the FDA for sale in 1996 and it remains the only oral drug approved for consumers with Interstitial Cystitis. It is not available as a generic in the United States, although a generic form does exist outside of the US.

The Emory Eye Center in Atlanta, Georgia observed a new eye disease between 2015 and 2018 in which the pigment cells within the retina of the eye changed color with patients having serious vision damage similar to that with patients having age-related macular degeneration. The Emory researchers found that each of the patients with this condition were taking Elmiron® for Interstitial Cystitis over a lengthy period of time.[2]

The Emory research prompted Kaiser Permanente to examine their patient database and found they had 91 patients, who had been taking Elmiron® for a minimum of 5 years. Of these women, 24% had eye damage, which increased in severity as the quantity of Elmiron® increased over time.[3]

The first National Multicenter Study by the Emory Eye Center (November 2019) which reviewed data from a large medical claims database between 2002 and 2016 revealed that patients having 7 years of Elmiron® use had significantly increased odds of experiencing atypical maculopathy and age-related macular degeneration.[4]

To date, despite these studies and the belief that the correlation between vision loss and use of Elmiron® may have been known previous to the above studies, there are NO warnings on the Elmiron® prescription use label relating to vision loss as a side effect of this drug.

Ophthalmologists have special optical examinations and tests to help diagnose this atypical maculopathy, if macular degeneration is suspected after chronic use of Elmiron®.

Taken Elmiron®? Suffering from Macular Degeneration Symptoms?

We Get Results

If you have been taking the medication Elmiron® and are suffering from any of the macular degeneration symptoms listed above, you may be entitled to compensation. Click, Chat or call 1800LAW1010 24/7 for a free case evaluation.

Don’t Wait Call Today!

[1] Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School, “Diagnosing and treating interstitial cystitis”, Published July 2011 and updated March 25, 2020.

[2] This research was published in the Journal, Ophthalmology, in November 2018

[3] This study was presented in October 2019 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in San Francisco and later published in their Journal, Ophthalmology, on January 2020

[4] Clinical Pearls for a New Condition, Review of Ophthalmology, July 10, 2019 by A. Hanif, MD and N. Jain, MD

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