Plaintiff Seeks $10 Million In Latest Actos Lawsuit

A plaintiff is seeking $10 million in damages in the latest Actos lawsuit, filed in Lafayette District Court in Louisiana on June 26, 2013. Anthony Vavalle, a 60-year-old New York resident, was prescribed Actos to treat Type II diabetes in December 2008. By July 2010, he was diagnosed with a severe case of bladder cancer.

He has suffered severe side effects of Actos that continue today, including: physical pain, emotional suffering, diminished quality of life, as well as lifelong medication and medical treatments. His wife Sandy is also seeking damages for loss of spousal consortium.

Actos lawsuit timeline

• 1999 – The FDA approves Actos for the treatment of diabetes mellitus.
• 2005 – The results of the PROspective PioglitAzone Clinical Trial were completed, at which point the defendants became aware of the increased bladder cancer risk among their patients. The findings were published, but omitted any information about bladder cancer deaths.
• April 2006 – Takeda forms a partnership with Eli Lilly to promote Actos.
• April 2011 – Diabetes Care journal published the findings of a Kaiser Permanente study, which found an increased risk of bladder cancer among patients who took Actos for more than two years.
• June 2011 – The French revealed a dangerous link between Actos and bladder cancer, causing the European Medicine Agency to suspend all new prescriptions until more research could be conducted. The FDA released a memo about the risks associated with Actos and recommended that anyone with a medical history of bladder cancer stop taking the drug.
• August 2011 – The FDA asks that an updated label be made to include bladder cancer risk.

Allegations against Takeda Pharmaceuticals & Eli Lilly

The Actos lawsuit claims that the defendants “negligently and/or fraudulently represented their drug to the medical community, the FDA, the plaintiff and the public at large. The suit went so far as to say the manufacturers “evinced a callous, reckless, willful, depraved indifference to health, safety, and welfare of the plaintiff.”

The plaintiffs are suing for nine specific causes of action, including:

• Negligence – for failing to exercise care in the design, research , manufacturing and marketing of Actos.
• Strict Product Liability – for unsafe, defective product design that was delivered to consumers.
• Breach of Express Warranty – for misrepresenting the product as safe and effective on the label.
• Breach of Implied Warranty – for implying that the product was safe and effective.
• Fraudulent Misrepresentation – for making false representations to the medical community and public.
• Fradulent Concealment – for intentionally hiding the risks associated with the product.
• Negligent Misrepresentation – for failing in their duty to represent a safe and effective diabetes drug.
• Fraud & Deceit – for intentionally distributing false information.
• Loss of Consortium – for denying the comfort, joy, society and services of spousal relations.

Actos bladder cancer lawsuits mounting

Bloomberg News reports that Takeda could face over 10,000 lawsuits alleging Actos bladder cancer and other injuries. Lawyers said that these cases are distinctive because bladder cancer is a “signature injury,” with not many other contributing factors. With strokes and heart attacks, there are more variables to consider. Even so, it will take an experienced Actos lawyer to prove the case.