Actos News

Jury Says Actos Causes Bladder Cancer, Awards $6.5 Million in First Actos Trial  
April 26, 2013

A Los Angeles jury has awarded $6.5M to Jack Cooper, a California man who claimed his bladder cancer was the result of the Actos medication he was taking for his diabetes.

Mr. Cooper’s case was the first Actos bladder cancer case to go to trial and was given priority because his doctor had given him only a few months to live. This verdict will set the bar for the thousands of other plaintiffs’ cases waiting to go to trial.

The trial against Actos drug maker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. held at the Central Civil West Courthouse, Superior Court of California in Los Angeles, lasted eight weeks with allegations presented by Mr. Cooper’s attorney that Takeda was aware of the bladder cancer risk associated with Actos as early as 2004 but carried out a carefully executed plan to hide the risk in order to protect a drug that was making $1.6 billion a year.  

“Takeda should have warned consumers of the risks concerning Actos years ago,” said Michael Baum, a Los Angeles attorney whose firm is representing dozens of clients in California and across the nation in Actos bladder cancer cases. “Takeda knew there was a statistically significant link between Actos and bladder cancer for over ten years and aggressively promoted the drug as safe and effective despite this knowledge.”

Attorneys Michael Baum and Cynthia Garber are leading Baum Hedlund’s Actos litigation and preparing the cases for trial in both state and federal courts. Both attorneys work directly with the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee overseeing the Actos multi-district litigation cases in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. They have also been appointed to the Actos Plaintiffs' Steering Committee for the California state court cases consolidated in Los Angeles.