Quoted from http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-02-28/takeda-didn-t-warn-of-actos-cancer-risk-lawyer-says
Takeda Didn’t Warn of Actos Cancer Risk, Lawyer Says
By Sophia Pearson and Jef Feeley on February 28, 2013
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. (4502), Asia’s biggest drugmaker, failed to warn doctors of the cancer risk associated with its Actos diabetes treatment, a lawyer said as the first of more than 3,000 lawsuits over the drug goes to trial.
Takeda sales representatives never warned a doctor for California resident Jack Cooper in more than 195 visits, Cooper’s lawyer Michael J. Miller said today in opening statements in state court in Los Angeles. The doctor prescribed the drug to Cooper in 2006.
The Osaka-based company is facing thousands of lawsuits alleging Actos caused bladder cancer or other ailments among patients, according to court records.
“Jack Cooper will be dead in the next seven months from bladder cancer,” Miller told jurors. “There is no cure.”
Cooper’s suit is among the cases that have been gathered before Judge Kenneth Freeman in California. The drugmaker is also facing cases in state court in Illinois and more than 1,200 lawsuits consolidated before a federal judge in Louisiana. The first federal trial is scheduled for November 2014, according to court filings.
Takeda officials have defended the company’s handling of Actos by noting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found it safe and effective. There is no proof that it causes bladder cancer, the company has said. Lawyers for the company are set to present their opening statements in the trial later today.