Second Actos Trial: Takeda Pharma Put Sales Ahead of Safety

Sept. 5, 2013
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Asia’s biggest drugmaker, put sales ahead of safety by failing to warn consumers about its Actos diabetes medicine’s cancer risks, a lawyer argued in the second case over the drug to go to trial.
During the Baltimore trial, attorney Stuart Simms blamed Actos for the death of Diep An, a Vietnamese immigrant who began taking Actos in 2007 and was diagnosed with bladder cancer in September 2011.
The case is the second of more than 3,000 suits over Actos to come to trial. In the first trial, a California jury ordered Takeda to pay $6.5 million in damages to a diabetic who blamed the drug for his bladder cancer. The judge in the case later threw out the verdict. That ruling is on appeal. Read more