St. John attorney takes on Viagra suit

Published 12:00 am Monday, June 6, 2005

By KEVIN CHIRI

Publisher

RESERVE — A St. John Parish attorney has taken the lead on the rapidly developing national medical crisis involving the possible connection between Viagra and blindness in men who are using it.

Reserve attorney Daniel Becnel Jr. has already filed lawsuits in several states against Pfizer, Inc., after becoming involved in the newest medical situation involving the erectile dysfunction drug.

“The FDA has is already planning to put a black box warning on Viagra and they are now reviewing the medication,” Becnel told L’Observateur in an exclusive interview. “I have always said that you should never take any medication that hasn’t been on the market for at least seven years, and this is another case of the FDA rushing something to market just because the drug companies are interested in huge profits.”

Becnel is nationally known for heading numerous high-profile class action lawsuits in the country, including tobacco cases, chemical spills, and many different medication cases.

The Viagra case is just the tip of the iceberg for what he sees as another big class action case nationally, which may eventually include other erectile dysfunction drugs.

Becnel said he has already had over 100 clients contact him, along with co-counsel Ronny Penton of Bogalusa.

Penton told the story of the father of a former Secret Service agent who is among the clients.

“This man was a Secret Service agent for President Ford, and after using Viagra, he has gone totally blind,” Penton said. “We have been inundated with clients in this situation ever since it hit the national news.”

Becnel and Penton revealed just a few of the other clients who have told their stories.

-A 59-year-old man was prescribed the drug, immediately having severe headaches. The dose was reduced and he continued to use Viagra. On one occasion after having used the drug, he had intercourse, then saw

bright colors, followed by loss of vision and soreness around his eye. Two weeks later his vision was only 20/100.

-A 67-year-old man was awakened with decreased vision one day after using the drug. He had been using the drug intermittently for five weeks, and had a history of hypertension and a seizure disorder. Two and a half years after the problem began, his vision is still abnormal.

-A 69-year-old man used the drug only one time, and immediately noticed acute visual loss by the next day.

-A 60-year-old man reported a “shade coming down over” his eye awakening the morning after using the drug.

Becnel said that it appears the drug may be safe for many individuals, however the key for a potential problem may be in other medical conditions.

“This drug increases blood flow, and increased blood flow is known to create optic nerve problems,” he said. “We feel like there hasn’t been enough effective warnings by the drug companies about just who really should use it.”

Becnel said that he was contacted by one of many medical experts “six months ago” about the potential problem.

“I have the best medical experts in the world, and whenever they see something unusual, they contact me,” he said. “It didn’t take long for us to put the word out for our attorneys around the country to be on the lookout for this, before we saw there was a serious problem.”

Becnel and Penton have filed lawsuits in several different states already, and will eventually consolidate them into a single national class action suit.

“The biggest problem with all this is that now doctors are petrified about prescribing it, feeling like they will be sued,” he said. “They feel responsible, when it is not the doctors who are the problem.”

A total of 23 million men worldwide have used Viagra, with admittedly, a very small percentage, showing such problems. Viagra sales reached $1.68 billion in 2004 alone, according to Becnel’s lawsuit.

Efforts to obtain a comment by Pfizer, Inc. were not available as of press time.