In the wake of an FDA advisory on the link between Invokana (canagliflozin) and an elevated risk of lower limb amputations, a number of physicians and health care providers in California have stopped prescribing the diabetic drug to their patients.

This week, Johnson & Johnson was celebrating results from its CANVAS and CANVAS-R studies, showing that its diabetic drug Invokana (canagliflozin) reduced the risk of heart attacks and strokes by 14%. Those results were presented on Monday at the 77^th annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association. That compared very favorably with rival prescription medication Jardiance (empagliflozin), a product of Eli Lilly and Company.

When there is a sizable number of lawsuits against a company with similar causes of action, there is usually a movement to combine all of the trials so they are heard before one judge. It's a way to economize on judicial resources and eliminate duplicate efforts when it comes to gathering evidence, filing motions and other pretrial proceedings. This is what is currently happening in lawsuits against Janssen Pharmaceuticals regarding the Type 2 diabetic prescription drug, Invokana (canagliflozin).

While the diabetic medication Invokana (canagliflozin) has been implicated in the development ketoacidosis in patients, it is not the only prescription drug in its class to have such a serious side effect. It was well over a year ago (May 2015, to be exact) that the Food and Drug Administration issued a statement on receiving numerous reports of how the entire class of gliflozin drugs was causing dangerous ketoacidosis. In fact, during the two years prior to issuing that statement, the FDA had received in excess of 100 reports of serious kidney damage.