Is there an Actos Class Action Lawsuit?

February 25th, 2011. By admin

That’s the question someone posted over at Answers.com—aka, wikianswers. And there it sits with zero answers—which should pretty much state the obvious, that, no, there is not an Actos class action lawsuit*. There may well be Actos lawsuits, however.

And therein lies the crux of what many type-2 Diabetes patients who are currently taking Actos are finding themselves asking. After all, Actos became to go-to drug—starting back in 2007–when drug-of-the-same-class Avandia started to come under fire. Doctors began switching patients, many of whom probably asked for the switch themselves, over to Actos. Needless to say, as more and more information became available regarding Avandia adverse events, Actos became the favored child of the family, so to speak—the lesser of two evils.

Even with the halting of the TIDE study—which compared Avandia vs Actos—over ethical concerns about continuing a study that involved a drug, Avandia, with potentially very serious side effects—the default takeaway message appeared to be, “switch to Actos”. It was only after the dust began to settle and the FDA had chimed in on Avandia’s fate that attention began to drift back over to Actos.

Recently, an article in Cardiovascular Business showed just how great the switchover to Actos has been:

“Even after the class-wide FDA black box warning for congestive heart failure was added in 2007, pioglitazone [Actos] use was largely unchanged and it was prescribed during an estimated 5.8 million treatment visits for type 2 diabetes between 2008 and 2009 (Diabetes Care 2010;33(4):823–825).

“The use of TZDs [Thiazolidinediones] as monotherapy, which should have a very limited role in diabetes treatment according to treatment guidelines, accounted for 25 percent of all TZD treatment visits (Arch Intern Med 2008;168(19):2088–2094).”

Those are not small numbers. Which is why the following data, again from Cardiovascular Business, on Actos adverse events—ie, serious negative Actos side effects such as heart failure—begins to be of great concern once viewed outside the shadows of Avandia:

“Thiazolidinediones (TZDs), the class to which Avandia and Actos belong, are not recommended as part of the well-validated core therapy for diabetes because of their adverse effect profile, the authors pointed out. Both rosiglitazone and pioglitazone increase the risk of significant weight gain and lower-extremity edema and have been associated with accelerated bone loss and fractures among women. Moreover, both medications now carry an FDA black box warning after multiple studies have confirmed that they increase the risk of heart failure and related adverse events.

“Although the magnitude of the risk associated with each agent varies by degree among different studies, the most recent FDA meta-analysis confirmed that the risk was elevated for both agents—nearly 1.5 greater odds for pioglitazone and double for rosiglitazone,” Lipska and Ross wrote.

“The authors also pointed to evidence of increased heart failure events with TZDs.”

Throw in the mix that recently the FDA put Actos on its list of drugs to watch for potential safety concerns, and, even more recently, the Texas State Attorney General’s request of Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly to cough up and hand over documents as part of an investigation regarding the diabetes drug. (Apparently, neither the companies nor the spokesman for the TX AG had any further comment other than to say they’re cooperating…)

Given that Actos is now finding itself increasingly center stage, it’s no wonder type-2 diabetes patients on Actos are asking, “Is there an Actos class action lawsuit*?”

*Just fyi, due to the requirements necessary for a class action lawsuit to be certified, it is unlikely there would be an Actos class action—a class action lawsuit requires that the injuries suffered by all the members of the class be the same, or highly similar, making the same legal arguments and seeking common damages. Because each patient is different and Actos side effects would affect each patient differently, it would be unlikely that a class would exist whereby there was the necessary commonality for a class action to proceed. This, however, does not mean that Actos lawsuits would not be handled on an individual basis.

Tags: Actos, Avandia, Diabetes

This was posted on Friday, February 25th, 2011 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Emerging Issues . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.