People Who Took Elmiron for Bladder Pain May Be Owed Money After Permanent Eye Damage Found

Elmiron is the only FDA-approved drug for interstitial cystitis — a chronic, painful bladder condition that affects an estimated 3 to 8 million Americans, most of them women. Many people take it for years.

In 2018, researchers at Kaiser Permanente published a study in the journal Ophthalmology linking long-term Elmiron use to a new and previously unknown type of retinal damage.¹ Patients who had taken Elmiron for years were developing damage to the center of their retina — even though they had no other known cause for their vision problems.

Janssen Pharmaceuticals (a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary) makes Elmiron. Lawsuits allege the company failed to adequately warn patients about this risk before the FDA finally required a new warning label in 2020.² If you took Elmiron and have experienced vision changes, take two minutes to check if you qualify.

What the Elmiron Lawsuit Is About

The retinal damage linked to Elmiron is called pigmentary maculopathy — a type of damage to the macula, the part of the retina responsible for sharp, detailed, central vision. It affects your ability to read, drive, recognize faces, and do close work.

What makes this particularly serious is that eye doctors had been misdiagnosing this condition for years — it looks similar to age-related macular degeneration on imaging, but it's caused specifically by Elmiron use. According to the original Kaiser Permanente study (Pearce et al., Ophthalmology, 2018), about 25% of patients who took Elmiron for more than 15 years showed signs of this damage.¹

In June 2020, the FDA required Janssen to add a vision risk warning to Elmiron's label — but for many patients, the warning came after years of use.²

Who May Qualify

You may qualify if both of the following apply:

1. You took Elmiron (pentosan polysulfate sodium) for six months or more — typically to treat interstitial cystitis.
2. You developed vision problems — including blurred vision, difficulty reading, blind spots, trouble seeing in low light, or a diagnosis of pigmentary maculopathy, macular degeneration, or unexplained retinal damage.

What Could This Mean for You?

If you qualify, you may be owed money for medical costs related to your vision damage, pain and suffering, loss of quality of life, and other related losses. Vision damage from Elmiron can be permanent.

We will not quote you a specific number. What any case may be worth depends entirely on your individual situation — how long you took Elmiron, how severe your vision loss is, your medical history, and how your case resolves. Anyone who gives you a specific dollar figure at this stage is guessing — and we won't do that.

What we can say: checking is free, takes two minutes, and you pay nothing out of pocket unless your case wins.

Filing Deadline

Deadlines to file vary by state. The MDL (MDL 2973) in New Jersey is active — but you still need to file before your own state's deadline passes.³ Contact an attorney sooner rather than later. The clock may already be running from the date you first noticed vision changes, or from the date you learned about the connection to Elmiron.

Don't wait. Once the deadline passes in your state, you cannot file — even if you clearly would have qualified.

How the Process Works

Step 1 — Fill out the free form

No cost, no commitment. Takes about two minutes. A real person on our intake team reviews every submission.

Step 2 — A lawyer reviews your Elmiron use and vision history

They look at how long you took the drug and what vision changes you experienced. If it looks like you may qualify, someone reaches out. If you don't hear back within a week, please contact another firm before your state's deadline passes.

Step 3 — You pay nothing unless you receive compensation

Attorneys work on contingency — no out-of-pocket fees. If your case doesn't recover money, you owe nothing. Ever.

Step 4 — Your case is added to the MDL or filed in state court

Your case joins the active MDL in New Jersey or is filed in the appropriate state court. Most people never have to appear in a courtroom.

Common Questions

Sources

• ¹ Pearce, W.A. et al. "Potential Toxicity of Pentosan Polysulfate Sodium." Ophthalmology, 2018. Kaiser Permanente / American Academy of Ophthalmology.
• ² FDA Drug Safety Communication: "FDA warns of rare cases of serious eye condition with Elmiron." June 2020. U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
• ³ PACER: MDL 2973, In Re: Elmiron (Pentosan Polysulfate Sodium) Products Liability Litigation. U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey.