Actos Bladder Cancer Lawsuit Will Go Ahead

New Orleans, LAAn Actos bladder cancer lawsuit will go ahead despite Takeda Pharmaceuticals, maker of Actos, filing a motion for summary judgment. According to reports, the judge in the Actos side effects lawsuit ruled against Takeda and found that the wrongful death lawsuit, which alleged Takeda withheld knowledge regarding a link between Actos and bladder cancer, could continue.

Lawsuits filed against Takeda, including MDL No: 6:11-md-2299 (court documents found here), allege patients died from bladder cancer after using Actos from 2002 through 2010 for type 2 diabetes. One such lawsuit, filed by Robert Raymond, acting as administrator of the estate of Joseph Raymond, alleges Takeda “concealed and continue to conceal their knowledge of Actos’ unreasonably dangerous risks from Joseph Raymond, his physician(s), other consumers, and the medical community. Specifically, Defendants failed to adequately inform consumers and the prescribing medical community about the risk of bladder cancer associated with more than 12 months of Actos ingestion.”

Some bellwether lawsuits have already been heard, with two awards for the plaintiff - both of which were later overturned by the trial judge - and a third bellwether in which a decision was issued for the defense.

In another bellwether lawsuit, the first bellwether in the multidistrict litigation in the US District Court Western District of Louisiana, Takeda had reportedly filed a motion for partial summary judgment, arguing that the company was preempted from changing the Actos warning label.

The judge, however, reportedly found that Takeda did not provide enough evidence to back its preemption defense, and ruled the court case could continue. Specifically, according to HarrisMartin Publishing (1/8/14), the judge found that Takeda did not show evidence it proposed a stronger label warning to the FDA and the court could therefore not conclude that the company could not have complied with both federal and state laws.

Meanwhile, four Actos lawsuits alleging patients developed bladder cancer after using Actos have been transferred to Circuit Court. The lawsuits were initially filed in St. Clair County court, according to the Madison Record (12/16/13), but were later transferred by the judge. The lawsuits allege that Takeda Pharmaceuticals knew about a potential link between Actos and bladder cancer but failed to warn about that risk.