Just Two of a Potential 10,000 Actos Bladder Cancer Lawsuits

Boston, MAIt may have been all well and good for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to caution Actos patients, as it did last June, about the potential for Actos bladder cancer following use of Actos for longer than one year, but the problem for many Actos lawsuit plaintiffs, however, is two-fold...

• Most patients with Type 2 diabetes require ongoing medication to manage their disease.

• The FDA warning came after countless Actos patients had already been using Actos for several years.

As highlighted throughout LawyersandSettlements.com, various studies suggesting a link between Actos and bladder cancer have flooded the inbox of doctors and pharmacists whom, until recently, have been prescribing and dispensing Actos with little concern. For a time, Actos was the gilded prize that flourished in the wake of the troubled Avandia.

That's all changed, with Bloomberg News noting earlier this year Actos manufacturer Takeda Pharmaceuticals could be facing as many as 10,000 lawsuits alleging Actos bladder cancer.

One such Actos bladder cancer lawsuit was filed by the family of Joseph Raymond, an Actos patient from Georgia who used Actos, known generically as pioglitazone hydrochloride, from 2002 until February 2010. He did not survive. According to Lawyers Weekly USA (8/14/12), the lawsuit accuses the defendant of failing to inform about the Actos side effects—specifically the link to Actos bladder cancer—and alleges Takeda and co-defendant Eli Lilly knew about the bladder cancer link for longer than twelve months before articulating the potential danger.

The Raymond lawsuit is similar to one filed in this past June on behalf of an unnamed plaintiff who was prescribed Actos to manage her Type 2 diabetes from November 5, 2003 through October / November of last year. According to a summary of the lawsuit published by PRWeb (8/14/12), the plaintiff presented with cancerous tumors on the bladder in late April, 2009 but continued to take Actos without knowing the risks, and potential link to Actos bladder cancer until the fall of last year, just a few months following issuance of the FDA warning on June 15th, 2011.

The Actos bladder cancer lawsuit alleges that warnings on the Actos label during the eight years the plaintiff took Actos were inadequate. The plaintiff states had she known about the dangers associated with Actos, she would not have used the drug.

The aforementioned lawsuit, Case No. 12CE01901, was filed June 18 this year in California Superior Court, in Fresno County.

Actos has been linked to other adverse reactions, including Actos macular edema (Actos vision problems) and issues with Actos liver. As for the potential of Actos heart failure, that's a risk Takeda did not deny. However, doctors and their patients embraced Actos in the wake of damning studies linking GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia with heart attack. In contrast, the risk for Actos congestive heart failure is thought to be less severe when using Actos.

The same month the FDA issued its cautionary stance with regard to Actos and bladder cancer, regulators in France and Germany took steps to actually remove Actos from the market in those respective jurisdictions—further fodder for any Actos plaintiff thinking of contacting an Actos lawyer to pursue an Actos bladder cancer lawsuit.