OsmoPrep Named in Kidney Damage Lawsuit
Four people with kidney damage severe enough to require dialysis are blaming OsmoPrep, a prescription bowel cleansing product, for their condition. They have filed a lawsuit in North Carolina against Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., and Salix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
The plaintiffs in this lawsuit claim to have suffered acute phosphate nephropathy because of their use of OsmoPrep. The OsmoPrep lawsuit alleges that Salix was aware of the risks of serious kidney damage at the time of first marketing OsmoPrep and up until health regulators mandated stronger warnings for the product.
Oral sodium phosphate (OSP) products like OsmoPrep are used to cleanse the intestines prior to a colonoscopy. Salix also markets a second OSP product called Visicol. In 2008, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) ordered that a black box warning – its most serious safety notice – be added to the prescribing information of OsmoPrep and Visicol. At the time, the agency said it had received reports of 20 unique cases of kidney injury associated with the use of OsmoPrep, including three cases of acute phosphate nephropathy.
