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San Diego Truvada Lawsuits Lawyers

Major drug manufacturer Gilead Sciences Inc. was met in the California civil court recently when two gentlemen claimed that their tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) based medication called Truvada caused them to develop serious side effects. To make matters worse, the lawsuit claims that the company withheld a safer alternative for the sake of raking in billions in profits and did so without telling their consumers.

Now, many individuals living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that take Truvada in tandem with other HIV medications to reduce its presence within the body are developing severe bone and kidney complications through no fault of their own.

The San Diego Truvada lawsuit attorneys of Onder Law Firm are looking to right Gilead’s most grievous wrong by representing their victims in civil court with an aim to secure them the compensation that is rightfully due to them.

Contact Onder Law Firm at (314) 310-7924 to set up your FREE legal consultations with our best San Diego Truvada lawsuit lawyers today.

An In-Depth Look Into Gilead’s Recent Litigation

Gilead Sciences is no stranger to litigation. In the past, the company was sued for its alleged participation in funneling kickbacks in order to essentially bribe doctors and medical personnel to prescribe their Hepatitis B and HIV medications.

Other times, the company was sued for allegedly concealing information from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—a move that they would do multiple times throughout their 30-year operation—regarding an active ingredient used in the drugs they manufacture from unapproved contaminated sources in China.

However, their latest litigation is a clear example of corporate greed and sheer negligence/maliciousness. Two men in California filed personal injury claims and a class action lawsuit alleging that Gilead knew about the harmful side effects that TDF causes as far back as 2001 but sold them anyway in order to secure lucrative profits and patents.

By the same token, Gilead also shelved a much safer alternative called tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF) in order to market as a new and improved formula once TDF patents lapsed in 2015. This move allowed them to charge high prices for Truvada and secured over $11 billion in sales for Gilead, much to the physical and emotional expense of their consumers.

While joining the class action lawsuit may seem like a quick resolution that sounds off a resounding message to pharmaceutical companies, you risk undercutting the value of your product liability claim. That’s why recruiting an experienced Truvada lawsuit attorney from Onder Law Firm is the best decision you can make with regard to voicing your pain and suffering and winning the restitution you need to recover from such a traumatic ordeal.

Overview of San Diego/San Diego County HIV Facts and Truvada Use

The following statistics reveals the faces of victims that may suffer the most from bone and kidney complications developed from chronic Truvada use. In most cases, these side effects manifest in users who are living with HIV and take the TDF-based drug with other medications daily to reduce the growth of HIV within themselves.

The Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) of San Diego County stated in their 2016 Epidemiology Report that around 13,643 individuals are living with HIV/AIDS within the county that year. The report also cited the most commonly affected demographic that lived with HIV/AIDS were Caucasian or Latinx gay or bisexual men around 49 years of age.

A few years ago, the Central Region of San Diego County had the most people living with HIV during, of which:

  • 52 percent were Caucasian.
  • 29 percent were Latinx/Hispanic.
  • 15 percent were African American.

Since then, the number of people living with the virus has decreased, but other regions began experiencing an increase in HIV infections. The South Region of San Diego County is considered the second-most area affected by HIV, of which:

  • 70 percent of people living with HIV were Hispanic/Latinx.
  • 16 percent were Caucasian.
  • 11 percent were African American.

Approximately 1,368 women (10 percent) are living with HIV in San Diego County, and of that number:

  • 19 percent are African American women.
  • 11 percent are Latinx/Hispanic.
  • 6 percent are Caucasian.

According to the HHSA data, African American women were eight times more likely to contract the virus than Caucasian women.

The most predominant forms of contraction in both men and women are listed below. In men:

  • 81 percent contracted the virus from male-to-male sexual contact (MSM).
  • 8 percent contracted it from MSM drug injection use.
  • 5 percent developed HIV from injection drug use.
  • 4 percent developed the virus from heterosexual sex.

For women:

  • 74 percent contracted HIV from heterosexual sex.
  • 19 percent developed the virus from injection drug use.

To combat the growth of HIV California’s Medicaid health care program called Medi-Cal made access to PrEP like Truvada easier for its enrollees. At first, PrEP use was low between 2012 and 2014, where only around 44 people per million enrollees used PrEP drugs. That number increased in size dramatically by the end of 2016 to 443 per million enrollees.

With this increase in use, it is important that people living with HIV taking Truvada pay close attention to their bone and kidney health.

Truvada Has Been Linked to Debilitating Side Effects

The way that Truvada works is by using excessive amounts of TDF to reduce the activity of an enzyme called reverse transcriptase. This enzyme aids the virus in replicating more HIV-infected cells. As more TDF is flooded into the body, the more detrimental the side effects become, namely within a user’s bones and kidneys.

Under the effects of TDF, bones lose the minerals that keep them healthy and strong. This loss in minerals is called bone density loss, and it often involves the loss of copious amounts of calcium that turns bones brittle. As more time passes while taking Truvada, additional bone complications can manifest, like:

  • Discomfort in Extremities
  • Decreased Bone Mineral Density
  • Bone Deterioration or Osteoporosis
  • Bone Loss or Osteopenia
  • Dental Complications (e.g. Tooth Decay and Loss)

On the other hand, excessive amounts of TDF can negatively affect how kidneys function. As the kidneys struggle to filter and flush out the excess TDF from your system, it can lead to an overproduction of serum creatinine. Once this happens, it is the first sign that the user of Truvada has developed chronic kidney disease. If left alone, life-threatening conditions like the following can occur:

  • Declining Kidney Function/Decreased Urination
  • Acute Kidney Injury
  • Acute Renal Failure
  • Fanconi Syndrome
  • Kidney Failure

The debilitating side effects caused by Truvada usage can be worsened if the person living with HIV taking the drug already has preexisting kidney or bone conditions. Because of this, caution must be taken when using the drug.

Refuse to suffer in silence. Contact the San Diego Truvada lawsuit attorneys of Onder Law Firm for your FREE, no-obligation consultation today. 

What Should You Do If You’ve Been Injured by Truvada Use?

Frequent Truvada use can create side effects that aren’t necessarily noticeable at first. Bone fractures may occur suddenly, and chronic kidney diseases may not exhibit symptoms until much later stages.

In any case, if you suspect that you have sustained damage from TDF-based products, your best option to take is to visit your doctor immediately. There, he or she can help diagnose your side effects and symptoms with specific tests to bones and kidneys to see how badly they are affected. Afterward, your doctor can create a treatment and diet regimen and prescribe medication that can reduce—and may even reverse, depending on what you suffer from—certain side effects.

Keep in mind that your hospital should have adequate records showing what injuries you sustained, how you were treated, and how much it all cost. These records are priceless pieces of evidence that can strengthen your case and win you maximum monetary compensation should you file a product liability claim.

From there, seek out the services of an experienced Truvada lawsuit attorney to help you fight for what is owed to you in the civil court. You will want to recruit a law firm that has extensive experience fighting big corporations that have created defective products which harmed their consumers. Take, for example, Onder Law Firm. We have a solid history of representing clients in product liability claims and have won them over $3 billion in settlements and verdicts.

Once you file a claim, our lawyers can quickly get to work. When you’ve suffered injury from a defective product in California, you don’t want to wait too long to file a claim. The statute of limitations in the state is 2 years from when the injury occurred, and waiting too long can hurt your chances of winning your claim and how much you are eligible to win in terms of compensation.

Let the San Diego Truvada lawsuit attorneys of Onder Law Firm deliver the justice that is owed to you through cold, hard compensation. Contact us at (314) 310-7924 to set up your FREE legal consultation today.

Our team is ready to help you with your Truvada case Call (314) 310-7924

This web site is designed for general information only. The information presented at this site should not be construed to be formal legal advice nor the formation of a lawyer/client relationship. The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements. Past results afford no guarantee of future results. Every case is different and must be judged on its own merits. Results include Co-lead counsel on Yaz MDL & co-liaison leadership role in Pradaxa MDL.

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