Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-12/abbott-labs-arthritis-drug-humira-caused-lymphoma-cancer-texas-suit-says.html
Abbott Sued Over Claims Arthritis Drug Caused Cancer
By Laurel Brubaker Calkins - Jan 12, 2011 8:21 PM ET
Abbott Laboratories was sued by a Texas rheumatoid arthritis sufferer who claims she developed lymphoma after taking its drug Humira in a company-sponsored clinical trial in 2005.
“Abbott had the data in its possession by January 2005 to alert people to the three- to fivefold potential risk of cancer for patients taking Humira,’’ lawyer Andy Vickery said in a lawsuit filed yesterday in Houston federal court. “Abbott did nothing to warn patients directly about the risks of Humira- induced cancers’’ until federal regulators required it in 2009.
Gayathri Murthy, a Houston hospital worker, began taking Humira as part of a clinical trial in early 2005, for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, according to the complaint. Her doctor warned her the drug increased the risk of tuberculosis and said other side effects were similar to the “side effects of aspirin.’’
She remained on the drug until she was diagnosed with lymphoma in February 2006, according to the complaint.