Actos News

Actos Bladder Cancer Lawsuits Reach One Thousand Mark in Louisiana Federal Court
Monday, October 1, 2012

Lafayette, Louisiana, October 1, 2012 – The families of two men who died of bladder cancer have filed a federal Actos bladder cancer lawsuit against the manufacturers of the diabetes medication. The law firm of Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman is representing the families of James Person of Georgia and Pablo Astorga of California, who died of bladder cancer after taking Actos. The families are suing Takeda Pharmaceuticals, its subsidiaries, and drugmaker Eli Lilly (Actos was jointly launched by Takeda and Eli Lilly in 1999).

This lawsuit (case no. 6:12-cv-02446) will join a thousand similar Actos wrongful death and personal injury claims which have been transferred to the Actos MDL, In Re: Actos (Pioglitazone) Products Liability Litigation, 6:11-md-2299, and consolidated in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana before U.S. District Judge Rebecca Doherty.

The Actos bladder cancer cases that have been filed in multiple (federal) districts across the nation have been transferred to the Actos MDL (multi-district litigation).

The wrongful death lawsuit alleges that the type-2 diabetes drug Actos (pioglitazone), an “unreasonably dangerous and defective drug,” caused the bladder cancer, pain and suffering, emotional distress and deaths of Mr. Person and Mr. Astorga. According to the complaint, Takeda had advanced knowledge of a statistically relevant risk of bladder cancer in patients who took Actos. The complaint alleges that Takeda concealed this knowledge and failed to adequately warn the plaintiffs, their doctors and the American public about this link.

As a result of defendants “willful and malicious” negligence, the complaint claims, both the Person and Astorga families lost their loved ones. “Defendants demonstrated such an entire want of care as to establish that their acts and omissions were the result of actual conscious indifference to the rights, safety, and welfare of Plaintiffs,” the complaint alleges.

Actos [pioglitazone], approved in 1999 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus, has been the center of controversy since scientific data began surfacing that linked the drug to bladder cancer.

In June 2011, a French study reported a bladder cancer link, adding that the risk increased with exposure longer than one year. Shortly after the release of this data, France and Germany suspended the use of Actos and other pioglitazone-containing medication.

The FDA has not yet suspended Actos in the U.S. but on June 15, 2011 the FDA issued a Public Safety Announcement which warned patients about the Actos bladder cancer link. The FDA also recommended that doctors tell diabetes patients already diagnosed with bladder cancer to stop taking Actos or pioglitazone.

Earlier this year Health Canada released their own Actos bladder cancer warning, which specified that long term Actos use and higher doses were associated with a higher risk of bladder cancer.

About Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman

Baum Hedlund has been at the forefront of Actos bladder cancer litigation, and is currently representing dozens of clients in Actos wrongful death and personal injury cases in both state and federal courts. The team of lawyers working on the Actos bladder cancer cases have an in depth understanding of biomedical research, clinical trials, statistics, the pharmaceutical industry and marketing, as well as successful and effective discovery procedures and extensive work with experts on complicated scientific issues because of their years of experience related to Baum Hedlund’s past pharmaceutical litigation. Their attorneys have successfully represented over 4,000 individual cases against major pharmaceutical companies.