Suits by Viagra users aiming to link use of the drug with the development of melanoma will be hitting courtrooms soon.
The lawsuits were prompted by a study published in June by JAMA Internal Medicine, which reported that Viagra users were 84 percent more likely to develop skin cancer over a 10-year period. However, the lawyers filing those suits will have to demonstrate that taking the erectile dysfunction drug was the cause of the plaintiffs’ skin cancer, as some have criticized the JAMA study for merely showing a correlation.
The study looked at 26,000 men, finding that those who had taken Viagra—6 percent of the total—had roughly double the risk of developing melanoma than those who never took the drug. Among subjects who were actively taking the drug, the risk of developing melanoma was 84 percent greater, the study suggested. The study’s authors are affiliated with Harvard Medical School, Brown University, Indiana University and Tianjin Medical University in China.
The nature of the connection between Viagra use and melanoma is likely to be at the center of the litigation.
