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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Recalled Drug Gave Her Heart Disease,|Woman Says In Suit Against Teva & Ivax

MINNEAPOLIS (CN) - A woman says she got heart disease from taking generic pergolide, an ergot derivative prescribed for Parkinson's disease and restless leg syndrome but recalled in March 2007 for its associated with valvular heart disease. She sued Teva Pharmaceuticals and Ivax Pharmaceuticals in Federal Court.

Plaintiff Mary Ann Grappone claims Teva and Imax knew or should have known of the drug's association with heart disease but "continued to manufacture, distribute, market, promote and sell pergolide without revealing to physicians and the public the risks posed by pergolide," until the drug was recalled on March 29, 2007.

"Early studies of the side effects associated with pergolide revealed that the drug was associated with an increased risk of valvular heart disease," the complaint states. "Proper and adequate warnings of that risk were not provided by the defendants. Subsequent studies confirmed that patients taking pergolide were 7.1 times more likely to develop heart damage compared to patients taking other drugs. Those patients taking the highest doses of pergolide were at a risk 37 times greater. Another study found that 23.4% of patients taking pergolide suffered heart damage, compared with just 5.6% in a control group."

She is represented by Anthony Nemo with Meshbesher & Spence.

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