19 Year Old Victim Files Actos Bladder Cancer Lawsuit

In a lawsuit filed on June 14, 2013, plaintiff Cherry Young is seeking more than $50,000 in damages for injuries allegedly caused by the Type II diabetes drug pioglitazone. Takeda Pharmaceuticals manufactures the drug under the brand name Actos, which has been implicated in hundreds of bladder cancer cases over the past few years.

This latest Actos bladder cancer lawsuit charges Takeda and their marketing company, Eli Lilly, with five counts of wrongdoing, ranging from fraud, negligence and failure to warn, to defective design, misrepresentation and concealment of facts.

Actos bladder cancer lawsuit

What makes this case so tragic is that plaintiff Cherry Young of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama is just over 19 years of age, which makes her one of the youngest plaintiffs to come forward with a bladder cancer claim related to Actos. The plaintiff consumed the diabetes drug regularly, as prescribed by her doctor, and found that she now has bladder cancer. She has suffered tremendous pain, as well as permanent and life-threatening injuries. Ms. Young will be on medication and fear premature death for the rest of her life, the Actos lawyer presiding over the case states in the official court filing.

The Actos / bladder cancer connection:

Actos was first approved by the FDA for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes on July 15, 1999. From that time until April 2006, Eli Lilly was under contract to promote the drug to doctors and patients within the United States. Prior to seeking approval, the defendants should have known about the bladder cancer risk based on animal test results, says the Actos bladder cancer lawsuit. Bladder cancer reports from human trials began trickling in during the early 2000s.

The Lancet published a significant three-year study in 2005 that confirmed that there were more incidences of bladder cancer among users of Actos, compared to comparable drugs on the market.

In 2010, the FDA released a safety announcement that they were reviewing the mid-term data of an ongoing 10-year study conducted by Kaiser Permanente and funded by Takeda. Preliminary results found that the risk of bladder cancer increases with the dosage amount and length of time using Actos.

In April 2011, the American Diabetes Association published an assessment of the drug and concluded that research suggests an association between pioglitazone and bladder cancer. More specific studies were needed, they added.

In June 2011, Actos was suspended by the European Medicines Agency when the French published a paper demonstrating that exposure to pioglitazone for more than one year correlated with a significant increase in the risk of developing bladder cancer. That same month, the FDA warned that their data suggested a 40% increased risk of bladder cancer with Actos use for more than 12 months.

In response, Takeda changed the U.S. label to reflect the risk and issued a voluntary Actos recall in France.