Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-13/takeda-actos-judge-names-lead-attorneys-in-u-s-bladder-cancer-lawsuits.html
Takeda Actos Judge Names Lead Attorneys in Cancer Suits
By Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk - Mar 13, 2012 4:24 PM E
The judge overseeing lawsuits alleging Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. (4502)’s Actos diabetes medicine causes cancer appointed 19 plaintiffs’ lawyers to manage litigation involving U.S. claims.
Takeda, Asia’s biggest drugmaker, may face as many as 10,000 claims that Actos causes bladder cancer after U.S. regulators found last year the drug was linked to the disease. Federal lawsuits against the drugmaker were consolidated before U.S. District Judge Rebecca Doherty in Lafayette, Louisiana, in December. The first hearing on the cases is set for March 22, according to court filings.
“The court has determined to effect the selection of lead counsel, liaison counsel and plaintiffs’ executive and steering committees before the March 22nd-23rd status conference,” Doherty said in a March 12 note posted on the court’s website.
The lawsuits claim patients who use Actos, a prescription drug approved to treat type 2 diabetes, face increased risks of developing bladder cancer. The plaintiffs also claim that Takeda and co-defendant Eli Lilly & Co., based in Indianapolis, withheld information about the risk and failed to provide adequate warnings.
Takeda pulled Actos, its top-selling drug, off the market in Germany and France last year after it was linked to an increased cancer risk. The medication had sales of 387.9 billion yen ($4.8 billion) last fiscal year, 27 percent of the Osaka, Japan-based company’s revenue.