A woman acting on behalf of a deceased relative has filed a Januvia lawsuit, alleging that the type-2 diabetes drug developed by Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. led to the man’s 2012 pancreatic cancer diagnosis and subsequent death just a few months later.

According to the Januvia side effects lawsuit, Henry Moon, Jr. of Texas began taking the medication in January 2010 for treatment of his type-2 diabetes. However, in just over two years, the drug had reportedly caused his cancer, with a diagnosis coming July 25, 2012 and death on Nov. 1, 2012.

Pancreatic cancer is a pernicious predator as the long-term prognosis is just 20 percent over the course of one year and a fraction of that over five years. Yet, according to the consolidated master complaint that forms the basis of each Januvia lawsuit, companies like Merck knew, or should have known, of the risks that patients faced, including the risk of Januvia pancreatic cancer.

Studies in recent years have noted a significant increase in the rate of pancreatic cancer among patients taking type-2 diabetes drugs like Januvia after as little as two years. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the same drug companies have joined together to put black-box warnings on the successors to these drugs, the strongest warning the agency offers. Yet those drugs, like Victoza, still have the same mechanism of action.

There are two scientific explanations, and the more simple one is that these drugs linked to both pancreatic and thyroid cancer both lead to inflammation of the pancreas. Whenever there is consistent inflammation, the odds of cancer will increase.

The Januvia Pancreatic Cancer Lawsuit is Gwen Moon v. Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., Case No. 14-cv-0961, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. It was filed directly into In Re: Incretin-Based Therapies Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2452, in the same court.