The Farxiga lawsuit picture is effectively closed. Patients who alleged that AstraZeneca’s type 2 diabetes drug caused diabetic ketoacidosis, kidney damage, Fournier’s gangrene, or bladder cancer had their federal cases consolidated into a multidistrict litigation in 2017, but that MDL was terminated in July 2020 without a single verdict or settlement.1Drugwatch. SGLT2 Inhibitor Lawsuits2Stanford Law School. Recently Terminated MDLs As of 2026, no attorneys are known to be accepting new Farxiga cases.
Can You Still File a Farxiga Lawsuit
No active litigation is underway, and law firms that once advertised for Farxiga clients are no longer taking them. The same is true of the parallel litigation over Invokana, another SGLT2 inhibitor, whose MDL closed in April 2023 on similar terms.1Drugwatch. SGLT2 Inhibitor Lawsuits If you believe you were injured by Farxiga, an individual consultation with a product liability attorney is the only way to learn whether any state-court avenue remains open for your specific facts and jurisdiction, but the coordinated federal effort is over.
What the Lawsuits Alleged
Farxiga (dapagliflozin) is a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor first approved by the FDA in January 2014 for adults with type 2 diabetes.3AstraZeneca. Farxiga HCP Plaintiffs sued AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb, which had co-developed the drug before AstraZeneca bought out the partnership in February 2014.4AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca Acquisition of Bristol-Myers Squibb Global Diabetes Alliance
The injuries claimed in the litigation included:
- Diabetic ketoacidosis, a dangerous buildup of acids in the blood that requires emergency treatment
- Kidney damage, including acute kidney injury requiring hospitalization and sometimes dialysis
- Fournier’s gangrene, a rare bacterial infection of the genital and perineal area
- Bladder cancer, based on an imbalance seen in the drug’s clinical trials
The legal theories were the standard product-liability set: negligence, design defect, failure to warn, fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, breach of warranty, and state consumer-protection violations. A representative complaint filed in the Northern District of Alabama accused the manufacturers of knowing or having reason to know the risks and suppressing safety information while marketing the drug as safe.5Top Class Actions. Farxiga Ketoacidosis Cited in Lawsuit Against Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca These were individual lawsuits, not a class action; each plaintiff sued over their own injury.
The FDA Warnings That Drove the Cases
The claims tracked a series of FDA safety actions on SGLT2 inhibitors.
In May 2015, the FDA warned that SGLT2 inhibitors including Farxiga could cause ketoacidosis. The warning was based on 20 cases identified in the agency’s adverse event database between March 2013 and June 2014, all requiring hospitalization or emergency care.6AJMC. FDA Warns That SGLT2 Inhibitors May Result in Ketoacidosis By December 2015 the agency had identified 73 confirmed cases requiring hospitalization.7National Library of Medicine. SGLT2 Inhibitors and Ketoacidosis In March 2020, the FDA approved further label changes directing that Farxiga be stopped at least three days before scheduled surgeries because of the ketoacidosis risk.8Drug Topics. FDA Approves Safety Labeling Changes for SGLT2 Inhibitors
In August 2018, the FDA warned that SGLT2 inhibitors were linked to Fournier’s gangrene. The agency had found 12 cases between March 2013 and May 2018 in patients taking these drugs. All 12 required hospitalization and surgery, and one patient died. For comparison, the FDA noted that only six cases had been reported across all other diabetes medications over the prior 30 years.9University of Utah. SGLT2 Inhibitors May Increase Risk of Rare Perineal Infection New warnings were added to prescribing information for every SGLT2 inhibitor in October 2018.10Medscape. FDA Warns of Fournier’s Gangrene With SGLT2 Inhibitors A later review through January 2019 identified 55 total cases across the class, 16 involving dapagliflozin.11Johnson & Johnson. Adverse Event of Invokana: Fournier’s Gangrene Associated With SGLT2 Inhibitors By January 2022, the American Diabetes Association counted 491 cases across the class, including 101 tied to dapagliflozin.12National Library of Medicine. Fournier’s Gangrene Associated With SGLT-2 Inhibitors
The bladder cancer allegation predates Farxiga’s approval. In clinical trials, 10 of 6,045 patients taking dapagliflozin developed newly diagnosed bladder cancer, compared with 1 of 3,512 on placebo.13FDA. Farxiga Prescribing Information The FDA ultimately concluded the signal was “not conclusive” and approved the drug in January 2014 with a label warning and post-marketing surveillance requirements.14FDA. Farxiga NDA Summary Review
How the Federal MDL Was Structured
In February 2017, plaintiffs asked the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to consolidate the growing case count. On April 6, 2017, the Panel created MDL No. 2776, In re: Farxiga (Dapagliflozin) Products Liability Litigation, and sent the cases to the Southern District of New York before Judge Lorna G. Schofield.15U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. MDL-2776 Initial Transfer Order The initial order consolidated eighteen actions from New York, Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania, and more cases were added through later conditional transfer orders.16CourtListener. In Re Farxiga Dapagliflozin Products Liability Litigation
Farxiga and Invokana were kept separate. When the JPML created the Invokana MDL in December 2016, it explicitly declined to fold in Farxiga or other SGLT2 inhibitors, saying it was “not convinced” a combined MDL was warranted on the existing record.17U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. MDL-2750 Initial Transfer Order
How It Ended
The Farxiga MDL never went to trial. It was terminated on July 23, 2020, with 67 cases closed and one remanded to its original court. There were no verdicts and no settlements.1Drugwatch. SGLT2 Inhibitor Lawsuits2Stanford Law School. Recently Terminated MDLs
The Invokana MDL followed the same shape on a larger scale. That litigation involved 1,208 cases and closed on April 26, 2023, also without verdicts or settlements.1Drugwatch. SGLT2 Inhibitor Lawsuits The specific reasons the Farxiga cases resolved without recoveries are not detailed in publicly available records, but both SGLT2 inhibitor MDLs ended the same way, and the practical effect for patients considering a claim today is the same: the coordinated federal litigation is finished.