Recently filed lawsuits allege that the manufacturers of Elmiron were aware that the drug could cause eye damage and injury including vision loss, impairment, difficulty reading, and loss of night vision but they continued to market it without adequately warning patients of these risks. In 2018 and 2019, researchers from the Emory Eye Center and Harvard noticed that patients who had taken the drug Elmiron were developing a new disease called pigmentary maculopathy, a degenerative condition that causes blurred vision, distorted vision, eye pain, and even vision loss.
Elmiron is a prescription drug that is used to treat Interstitial Cystitis (“IC”), or painful bladder syndrome, pelvic pain, and urinary frequency or urgency. It is prescribed as a long term treatment, often at very high daily doses, because it does not relieve the symptoms of IC until a sufficient amount of the drug accumulates on the bladder wall. Even then it is only partially effective at relieving bladder pain. Unfortunately, the risk of developing pigmentary maculopathy grows higher as the duration of use and dosage increase. Early studies of patients who had taken Elmiron for at least 5 years showed that as many as 25% of them had signs of pigmentary maculopathy and that the severity of the condition was heightened in patients who had taken higher doses.
If you or a loved one has taken Elmiron for at least a year and experienced eye damage, eye injury, a loss of vision or visual disturbances, please contact one of our experienced product liability lawyers immediately via our
online form or call our office at (215) 972-1376 for a free and confidential review of your case. Our team of experienced attorneys and Elmiron intake staff are standing by and ready to take your call.