Actos bladder cancer lawsuits could be consolidated in a multidistrict litigation (MDL). In August 2011, plaintiffs in an Actos lawsuit petitioned the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistriction Litigation for consolidation, requesting that all pending and future Actos bladder cancer lawsuits in federal courts be transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois before Judge G. Patrick Murphy.
At least eleven Actos bladder cancer lawsuits have been filed in federal courts throughout the U.S. Two were filed in the Southern District of Illinois and the others were filed in the Northern District of Illinois, Western District of New York, Southern District of New York, District of New Jersey, Northern District of Ohio and Central District of California. All of the Actos bladder cancer lawsuits allege that defendants, including Takeda Pharmaceuticals, were negligent and failed to warn of the risks associated with the medication.
Lawsuits are sent to MDLs in order to efficiently process cases that could involve hundreds or thousands of plaintiffs, in dozens of different federal courts, which all share common issues. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation decides whether cases should be consolidated under MDL and where to transfer the cases. An MDL allows lawsuits associated with a specific product to be coordinated under one judge for pretrial litigation to avoid duplicative discovery, inconsistent rulings and to conserve the resources of the parties, witnesses and the court. When lawsuits are consolidated as a MDL, each retains its own identity. If the MDL process does not resolve the cases, they are transferred back to the court where they originated for trial.
Actos is the bestselling type II diabetes drug in the world, but in recent months, it has caused safety concerns because of its possible association with bladder cancer. As previously reported in an early September post, on June 15, 2011, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) issued a safety communication stating that use of Actos for more than one year may be associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer. The June safety communication was a follow-up to one the agency issued in September 2010 after preliminary data from a study conducted by Kaiser Permanente demonstrated that the risk of bladder cancer rises with increasing dose and duration of Actos use, reaching statistical significance after 24 months.
In June, the French and German governments suspended the sale of Actos in those countries after a separate study commissioned by French regulators demonstrated an increased risk of bladder cancer associated with Actos in people who took it the longest and at the highest cumulative dose. On July 12, Takeda Pharmaceuticals officially recalled Actos from the market in France.
At Pope McGlamry, our experienced lawyers are holding the Actos pharmaceutical manufacturers accountable by filing lawsuits on behalf of families who have experienced complications from the diabetes prescription drug Actos.
If you or a loved have type II diabetes and were prescribed the drug Actos, and have suffered complications, or experienced any symptoms associated with bladder cancer, you may be entitled to recover significant damages from the Actos manufacturers.
Disclaimer: All use of the Actos mark is for informational and product identification purposes only. This post should not be taken as either medical or legal advice, but instead should act as a resource in providing general information that may be useful to the general public. Pope McGlamry is not affiliated with the manufacturer of Actos®, Takeda Pharmaceutical, or its distributors.
