Actos Bladder Cancer Lawsuits continue to be filed

As the $2.7 billion Actos Bladder Cancer settlement lumbers towards completion, after being announced a year ago, comes new court data that shows that more plaintiffs are filing bladder cancer and wrongful death claims against Takeda the manufacturer of the defective diabetes drug Actos.

Thousands of plaintiffs have alleged that they developed bladder cancer side effects from using Actos to treat their diabetes. Those serious injury claims are now supported by a new study in BMJ.

In fact, my law firm has recently filed 4 new Actos bladder cancer cases, including a wrongful death claim that was filed 1 week ago. The unfortunate woman took Actos for several years and was recently diagnosed with metastatic cancer from her bladder. She was a non smoker and did not have any known risk factors for bladder cancer. She passed away shortly after diagnosis before getting chemotherapy and radiation therapies.

Latest Actos Bladder Cancer Lawsuit

A woman from Washington state recently filed a lawsuit against Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly, for negligence and strict product liability. The plaintiff used Actos and was later diagnosed with bladder cancer, and she alleges that the defendants knew about the link between Actos and bladder cancer but failed to warn patients and doctors about the serious risks.

The lawsuit is case number 6:16-cv-00581, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. Per the latest court data of May 16, 2016, there were 4,596 lawsuits consolidated for pretrial proceedings in MDL 2299, In Re Actos (Pioglitazone) Products Liability Litigation. Several thousand cases are consolidated in state court in Illinois.

Damning BMJ Medical Study

According to a study and published in the BMJ in March 2016, researchers compared the rates of bladder cancer in patients who were given pioglitazone (the generic name for Actos) with the rates of bladder cancer in patients given other diabetes medications.

The study found that Actos was linked to an increased risk of bladder cancer, whereas rosiglitazone (Avandia) was not linked to such a risk. Researchers found that the longer a patient took pioglitazone, and the higher the dose, the greater the risk of developing bladder cancer. In other words. there was a direct correlation between the length of use and dose of Actos. Overall, researchers found Actos was associated with a 63 percent increased risk of bladder cancer.

The researchers conclude that “the results of this large population based study indicate that Actos is associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer. The absence of an association with rosiglitazone suggests that the increased risk is drug specific and not a class effect.”

Actos Bladder Cancer Settlement

Takeda has put aside $2.7 billion to settle the Actos bladder cancer claims, a mere drop in the profit bucket for Takeda. Actos was a blockbuster drug for Takeda, who raked in billions of dollars of profit. There are about 8,000 lawsuits eligible to take part in the settlement, in which plaintiffs would receive an average of around $250,000. Under the terms of the settlement, payments would be reduced based on the patient’s age, history of smoking or exposure to other bladder cancer causing agents.

In 2014, a Louisiana jury awarded an Actos plaintiff $9 billion. The federal judge overseeing the landmark trial reduced that amount to $36.8 million.

What is Actos?

Actos is a diabetes medication made by Takeda Pharmaceuticals. In June 2011, the FDA warned that use of Actos for a year or more could be linked to an increased risk of bladder cancer. At the time, the FDA noted that an interim analysis of an ongoing study found that patients with the longest exposure and highest cumulative doses of Actos showed an increased risk of bladder cancer.