New York Arava Injury Attorneys

Arava is the brand name of lenflunomide, an anti-inflammatory prescription drug used to treat the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and is manufactured and marketed by Aventis Corporation.

Consumer groups are petitioning this drug to be taken off the market because it can have severe adverse side effects, including liver toxicity, liver damage and liver failure. Based on reports made to the FDA, since Arava was approved in 1998, it has been linked with at least 130 cases of severe liver damage and liver toxicity, including 56 hospitalizations and 12 deaths. There are also reports of lymphoma and drug-induced hypertension in people treated with Arava, as well as skin, blood and gastrointestinal reactions serious enough to cause hospitalization. Additionally, Arava has been associated with 12 cases of the life-threatening auto-immune disease Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.

According to recent research, Arava remains in body tissues for an extremely long time, so that even if patients stopped the drug after an adverse reaction starts, the damage can continue to affect them for months.

Arava has been linked to six times more cases of fatal liver toxicity and 13 times more reports of hypertension than methotrexate, a drug commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. In clinical trials, ARAVA was less or equally effective as methotrexate.