Bloomberg has reported that sales of testosterone replacement gels (such as Androgel, Androderm, Axiron, Testim, and others) have dropped since an FDA advisory panel voted 20-1 to impose strict limitations on the off-label use of Low T gels in order to avoid prescribing this dangerous drug to millions of men with no medical need. The advisory panel also urged drug makers to run safety trials following several independent studies showing testosterone replacement gels substantially increase the risk of heart attack, severe blood clots, and stroke.
Drug makers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars “selling the disease” they named Low T. In 2013, just two drug companies spent almost $120 million selling their Low T gels. And the marketing worked. Prescriptions nearly doubled between 2010 and 2013. Testosterone drug sales were $2.2 billion in 2013.
Data from 2014 shows testosterone gel sales have dropped by a modest 6%.
Testosterone Gel Health Risks and Side Effects
A 2010 clinical study found an increased risk of heart attack and stroke in men who took testosterone. In fact, the risk was so great the trial had to be stopped to avoid risk to the study participants.
Another study, by William D. Finkle and others – was published in January 2014. The Finkle study examined more than 55,000 men and looked at the rate of heart attack within 90 days of starting testosterone replacement therapy. Finkle found that testosterone replacement doubled the risk of heart attack in men over 65 years old and tripled the risk of heart attack in men with a prior history of heart problems. An earlier study, published in the November 2013 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) also found that testosterone gel therapy resulted in a substantially increased risk for heart attack and stroke in men over 65.
Testosterone Lawsuits Filed
There have been a number of lawsuits filed involving men who have experienced heart attack or other heart-related events after taking AndroGel. Hundreds of additional lawsuits are expected across the country. The attorneys at Langdon & Emison are currently investigating and evaluating these claims. Contact us for a free evaluation of your case. You can also download our free e-book, which takes a closer look at the development of testosterone replacement gels and the serious side effects that have been documented in recent studies.
Read More:
- Safety Concerns Slow Sales of Testosterone Therapy [Arlene Weintraub at Bloomberg BusinessWeek]
- FDA Panel: AndroGel, Other Testosterone Drugs Ineffective, Dangerous
© Copyright 2014 Brett A. Emison Follow @BrettEmison on Twitter.

Brett Emison is currently a partner at Langdon & Emison, a firm dedicated to helping injured victims across the country from their primary office near Kansas City. Mainly focusing on catastrophic injury and death cases as well as complex mass tort and dangerous drug cases, Mr. Emison often deals with automotive defects, automobile crashes, railroad crossing accidents (train accidents), trucking accidents, dangerous and defective drugs, defective medical devices.
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