$6.5 M Jury Verdict in California Actos Bladder Cancer Trial

[Anonymous]

$6.5 M Jury Verdict in California Actos Bladder Cancer Trial

Posted by Shezad Malik MD JD
Friday, April 26, 2013 11:14 PM EST

Today on April 26, 2013, a Los Angeles California jury found Takeda liable for bladder cancer injuries to Jack Cooper. As reported earlier the outcome of this first Actos bladder cancer trial was eagerly antipated by the many thousands of injured plaintiffs who had filed their Actos Bladder Cancer lawsuits.


The jury after intense deliberation over 8 days, returned a verdict of $6.5 million (Cooper v. Takeda Pharmaceuticals America Inc., CGC-12-518535, California Superior Court, Los Angeles). The jury found the defendant Takeda's failure to provide adequate warnings about the dangers of Actos drug was a substantial causative factor in Mr. Cooper’s bladder cancer. The jury also awarded $1.5 million for loss of consortium to his wife. Cooper was diagnosed with bladder cancer in November 2011 after taking Actos for more than two years.

Takeda Pharmaceuticals Continues to Deny Liability

Despite the verdict, Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc., continues to deny liabilty, and has filed motions asking the judge to rule in favor of the company as a matter of law and is considering its options, including a possible appeal if the motions are denied. The trial began on February 19 in Los Angeles before Judge Kenneth R. Freeman.

“Takeda respectfully disagrees with the jury’s verdict,” said Kenneth D. Greisman, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary, Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.

“Takeda empathizes with patients like Mr. Cooper, but we believe the evidence did not support a finding that ACTOS caused his bladder cancer. We also believe we demonstrated that Takeda acted responsibly with regard to ACTOS. We promptly disclosed ACTOS safety data to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and other regulatory authorities and provided updated product information to health care professionals and patients.”

Actos 2 Month Long Trial

During the almost two-month trial, evidence showed internal Takeda e-mails in which executives urged colleagues to persuade the U.S. Food and Drug Administration not to demand increased warnings about bladder cancer on Actos’s label. “Actos is the most important product for Takeda and therefore we need to manage this issue very carefully and successfully not to cause any damage for this product globally,” Takeda executive Kiyoshi Kitazawa said in an e-mail.

Actos a Multi Billion Dollar Blockbuster Drug

Takeda marketed the drug in the US with peak sales in 2011 at 4.5 billion, or about 27% of Takeda’s revenue according to data compiled by Bloomberg news. According to court records, Takeda is facing more than 3,000 suits alleging Actos caused bladder cancer.

Other cases are in state court in Illinois and more than 1,200 suits have been consolidated before a federal judge in Louisiana for pretrial information exchanges. The first federal case is set for trial in January, according to court filings.

Find this article at:
http://fortworth.legalexaminer.com/...n-california-actos-trial.aspx?googleid=308258
(c) 2013 The Legal Examiner

 

[Anonymous]

Justice has been served Congrats! One down 2,999 to go!

 

[Anonymous]

There will never be another trial. Takeda will settle at some point this summer. There's no way they'll risk more verdicts like this one and the simple truth of the matter is that the settlement will cost so much, Takeda will have no choice but to lay off reps. And why we're launching an Alo/Actos combo after this verdict is beyond comprehension. We're setting up the company for thousands of additional laysuits in years to come. It'll never launch this summer. Mark my words, no launch followed by massive settlement followed by layoffs..... I cannot wait for my severance check!

 

[Anonymous]

All because some fat fucks refused to put down the fork...

 

[Anonymous]

I feel sorry for all the patients and hard working Tappers that are going to get hurt because of
Takeda Legacy shadiness.

 

[Anonymous]

$6.5 M Jury Verdict in California Actos Bladder Cancer Trial

Posted by Shezad Malik MD JD
Friday, April 26, 2013 11:14 PM EST

Today on April 26, 2013, a Los Angeles California jury found Takeda liable for bladder cancer injuries to Jack Cooper. As reported earlier the outcome of this first Actos bladder cancer trial was eagerly antipated by the many thousands of injured plaintiffs who had filed their Actos Bladder Cancer lawsuits.


The jury after intense deliberation over 8 days, returned a verdict of $6.5 million (Cooper v. Takeda Pharmaceuticals America Inc., CGC-12-518535, California Superior Court, Los Angeles). The jury found the defendant Takeda's failure to provide adequate warnings about the dangers of Actos drug was a substantial causative factor in Mr. Cooper’s bladder cancer. The jury also awarded $1.5 million for loss of consortium to his wife. Cooper was diagnosed with bladder cancer in November 2011 after taking Actos for more than two years.

Takeda Pharmaceuticals Continues to Deny Liability

Despite the verdict, Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc., continues to deny liabilty, and has filed motions asking the judge to rule in favor of the company as a matter of law and is considering its options, including a possible appeal if the motions are denied. The trial began on February 19 in Los Angeles before Judge Kenneth R. Freeman.

“Takeda respectfully disagrees with the jury’s verdict,” said Kenneth D. Greisman, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary, Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.

“Takeda empathizes with patients like Mr. Cooper, but we believe the evidence did not support a finding that ACTOS caused his bladder cancer. We also believe we demonstrated that Takeda acted responsibly with regard to ACTOS. We promptly disclosed ACTOS safety data to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and other regulatory authorities and provided updated product information to health care professionals and patients.”

Actos 2 Month Long Trial

During the almost two-month trial, evidence showed internal Takeda e-mails in which executives urged colleagues to persuade the U.S. Food and Drug Administration not to demand increased warnings about bladder cancer on Actos’s label. “Actos is the most important product for Takeda and therefore we need to manage this issue very carefully and successfully not to cause any damage for this product globally,” Takeda executive Kiyoshi Kitazawa said in an e-mail.

Actos a Multi Billion Dollar Blockbuster Drug

Takeda marketed the drug in the US with peak sales in 2011 at 4.5 billion, or about 27% of Takeda’s revenue according to data compiled by Bloomberg news. According to court records, Takeda is facing more than 3,000 suits alleging Actos caused bladder cancer.

Other cases are in state court in Illinois and more than 1,200 suits have been consolidated before a federal judge in Louisiana for pretrial information exchanges. The first federal case is set for trial in January, according to court filings.

Find this article at:
http://fortworth.legalexaminer.com/...n-california-actos-trial.aspx?googleid=308258
(c) 2013 The Legal Examiner

Payback for being a slimey,greedy,unethical company!BASTARDS!

 

[Anonymous]

When do we get our payback on personal reposibility? Some lazy a-hole wastes his whole life ignoring their own health with smoking and poor nutrition and decides to go sue where the money is? Disgusting! They should be embarassed, but instead the feel like THEY are the victims? I hope bladder cancer is extremely painful!

 

[Anonymous]

When do we get our payback on personal reposibility? Some lazy a-hole wastes his whole life ignoring their own health with smoking and poor nutrition and decides to go sue where the money is? Disgusting! They should be embarassed, but instead the feel like THEY are the victims? I hope bladder cancer is extremely painful!

You're right,personal responsibility,integrity,honesty,those things no longer matter at Takeka.It is ALL about the money.You can try to rationalize this all you want,but the fact is that the slimey BASTARDS in management knew since 2005 that Actos could cause bladder cancer,and simply ignored it.They had some bean counters come in and calculate that the profits made keeping Actos on the market,would outweigh any potential lawsuits.Human life is indeed very cheap at Takeda.I'm sure they enjoy spending their blood money because they have proven that they have no moral conscience!

 

[Anonymous]

When do we get our payback on personal reposibility? Some lazy a-hole wastes his whole life ignoring their own health with smoking and poor nutrition and decides to go sue where the money is? Disgusting! They should be embarassed, but instead the feel like THEY are the victims? I hope bladder cancer is extremely painful!

Scumbag, how about instead spinning a bunch of BS you could have had some integrity and provided some fair balance discussion about safety. Then the doc and the patient could have made an educated decision. I love how 3 years ago Takeda legacy reps were ripping on Dpp4i's and now you want to launch one?

Jury trial you lost, you're responsible, 2,999 to go

 

[Anonymous]

Japn Times Article on verdict

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NATIONAL / CRIME & LEGAL
Takeda loses cancer suit over Actos
Drugmaker told to pay dying U.S. man $6.5 million for slack risk warnings
BLOOMBERG
APR 29, 2013
ARTICLE HISTORY
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LOS ANGELES – Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. owes $6.5 million in damages to a California man who said Asia’s largest drugmaker failed to warn consumers its Actos diabetes drug could cause cancer, a jury said in the first of more than 3,000 lawsuits over the medication to go to trial.

Jurors in state court in Los Angeles deliberated for more than five days before finding Osaka-based Takeda didn’t provide adequate bladder-cancer warnings to Jack Cooper and his doctors about Actos.

Cooper, 79, took the drug for more than four years before being diagnosed with the disease in 2011.

“I hope this verdict makes Takeda realize it’s time to solve the problems with Actos that they’ve known about for years,” Michael Miller, one of Cooper’s lawyers, said after the jury’s ruling was announced.

The verdict comes almost three months after Takeda won U.S. regulatory approval for Nesina, a diabetes drug to replace Actos, which lost patent protection last year.

Actos sales peaked in the year ended March 2011 at $4.5 billion, or 27 percent of Takeda’s revenue at the time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Takeda officials said Friday they’ve filed motions seeking to have the verdict and the entire case thrown out and to have Judge Kenneth Freeman review those requests next week.

“We respectfully disagree with the jury’s verdict and believe we showed in this trial Takeda acted responsibly” in its handling of Actos, Kenneth Greisman, general counsel for Takeda’s U.S. unit, said in a telephone interview.

Takeda faces more than 3,000 suits alleging Actos caused bladder cancer or other ailments, according to court records. Cooper’s suit was among those gathered before Freeman in Los Angeles. Other cases are in state court in Illinois.

More than 1,200 suits have been consolidated before a federal judge in Louisiana for pretrial information exchanges. The first federal case is set for trial in January, according to court filings.

Lawyers for former Actos users contend in court filings that Takeda researchers ignored or downplayed concerns about the drug’s cancer-causing potential before it went on sale in the U.S. in 1999, and misled U.S. regulators about the medicine’s risks.

Cooper’s case was heard on an expedited basis after Freeman found the former Pacific Bell Telephone Co. cable splicer was “gravely ill,” according to court filings.

During the almost two-month trial, Cooper’s lawyers told jurors that while Takeda’s own research found links between Actos and bladder cancer as early as 2004, company officials didn’t tell regulators about the findings for seven years.

Miller, Cooper’s lawyer, produced internal Takeda email messages in which executives urged colleagues to persuade the U.S. Food and Drug Administration not to demand increased warnings about bladder cancer on Actos’ label.

“Actos is the most important product for Takeda and therefore we need to manage this issue very carefully and successfully not to cause any damage for this product globally,” Takeda executive Kiyoshi Kitazawa said.

Even after FDA officials asked the drugmaker in 2005 and 2006 to update warnings about Actos’ health risks, Takeda executives “stalled and delayed” because the company “was making $1.6 billion a year” on the drug, Miller argued.Sara Gourley, one of Takeda’s lawyers, countered FDA researchers hadn’t concluded Actos caused bladder cancer. The drug didn’t cause Cooper to contract the illness, she said.

The company contends Cooper was more likely to develop bladder cancer because he was an elderly male former smoker who suffered from diabetes. That placed him in high-risk categories for the disease regardless of his Actos use, she said.

“The evidence is not only clear, it is overwhelming, that Mr. Cooper is in the highest-risk groups, and that his bladder cancer had nothing to do with Actos,” Gourley told jurors.

Still, jurors found Takeda officials “failed to adequately warn” Cooper’s doctors about Actos’ cancer risk and that failure was “a substantial factor” in causing Cooper harm, according to court filings.

Jurors awarded $5 million in compensatory damages to Cooper and $1.5 million to his wife. The panel rejected the couple’s request that Takeda face a punitive-damage award, according to the filings.

Losing the first of more than 3,000 Actos suits that are slated for trial is “a disaster for Takeda,” Hunter Shkolnik, a New York-based lawyer for former Actos users, said in an interview Friday.

“They will be facing back-to-back trials of stronger cases next year,” Shkolnik said. “This loss is devastating to the company.”

Greisman countered that the company will continue to “vigorously defend” against Actos suits and will evaluate cases individually as they come up for trial.

 

[Anonymous]

It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that a jury based out of California ruled against an employer. NONE OF THESE PEOPLE WORK! They're all either on disability or on the government cheese. No one wants to bring up that insulin also has significantly increased cancer risks. Doctors would then have nothing to prescribe for diabetics after the DD4's get pulled (for increasing pancreatic cancer risk). The real reason patients on insulin, TZD's and DPP4's are getting cancer is obesity and smoking. That's it. A jury is intended to be the biggest collection of morons that lawyers can find. Anyone with a brain is cut out. Look at the OJ jury. They completely ignored DNA odds of 4 billion to one! The whole reason medical care is so much more expensive in this country ties directly to trial lawyers. There is no interest in providing tort reform so everyone in health care gets sued and costs go up and up. We'll go bankrupt soon enough, which should help bring down the cancer rates in this country because people won't be able to afford to eat or smoke. Problem solved-brilliant!

 

[Anonymous]

Losing the first of more than 3,000 Actos suits that are slated for trial is “a disaster for Takeda,” Hunter Shkolnik, a New York-based lawyer for former Actos users, said in an interview Friday.

“They will be facing back-to-back trials of stronger cases next year,” “This loss is devastating to the company.”


Justice Finally

Thank You Jesus

 

[Anonymous]

Losing the first of more than 3,000 Actos suits that are slated for trial is “a disaster for Takeda,” Hunter Shkolnik, a New York-based lawyer for former Actos users, said in an interview Friday.

“They will be facing back-to-back trials of stronger cases next year,” “This loss is devastating to the company.”


Justice Finally

Thank You Jesus

Its too bad the good people that started with TAP are subject to suffering at the hands of the Takeda Group.

 

[Anonymous]

Can Takeda sue his wife for failing to warm him that a lifetime of smoking can lead to bladder cancer? NOW that they have millions, NOW they can be sued! Never mind a lifetime of a lack of personal responsibility. Will he reward Takeda for saving his eye sight or kidneys or feet because Actos controlled his diabetes whle his own lack of self control in the food/exercise could not stop his diabetes? Greedy people suck

 

[Anonymous]

All you self proclaimed "Good Tappers" All of you are lucky to even have a job as Takeda should had just trimmed the fat with all of you when they decided to buy the pathetic company.

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Do you "Good Tappers" want to discuss the $875 Million Dollar Lawsuit that TAP had to pay for Medicare Fraud?

I am sick of the BLAME game from TAP vs. Takeda. Bottom line is WE WERE ALL LIED TO by upper management. Don't you get it, we are just little PAWNS that are sacrificed in the larger game of chess.

 

[Anonymous]

All you self proclaimed "Good Tappers" All of you are lucky to even have a job as Takeda should had just trimmed the fat with all of you when they decided to buy the pathetic company.

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Do you "Good Tappers" want to discuss the $875 Million Dollar Lawsuit that TAP had to pay for Medicare Fraud?

I am sick of the BLAME game from TAP vs. Takeda. Bottom line is WE WERE ALL LIED TO by upper management. Don't you get it, we are just little PAWNS that are sacrificed in the larger game of chess.

Oh Iam so thankful for Takeda legacy and all their shady lies and 100% legacy of failures.

Geez, We should celebrate 2 Thanksgivings!
Takeda Legacy =#1 at failure

Take personal responsibility for your own failure and be happy you have job since everyone thing you touch turns out to be an abortion.

 

[Anonymous]

Losing the first of more than 3,000 Actos suits that are slated for trial is “a disaster for Takeda,” Hunter Shkolnik, a New York-based lawyer for former Actos users, said in an interview Friday.

“They will be facing back-to-back trials of stronger cases next year,” Shkolnik said. “This loss is devastating to the company.”


And they still refuse to update the label.. what is going to make them change??

 

[Anonymous]

Yet the FDA approved the alo/actos combo, doesn't sound like the FDA is concerned about BC with Actos use. People want the magic pill but when the majic doesn't fix all their problems they sue. Chances are they would have died of BC, lost limbs or something else if they didn't take actos...but hey free money is where it's at!

 

[Anonymous]

Yet the FDA approved the alo/actos combo, doesn't sound like the FDA is concerned about BC with Actos use. People want the magic pill but when the majic doesn't fix all their problems they sue. Chances are they would have died of BC, lost limbs or something else if they didn't take actos...but hey free money is where it's at!

Too bad the FDA isn't the determining jury settlements.

The question is are you more likely to develop Bladder Cancer as a result of being on Actos? It is not, are you already a high risk group for bladder cancer and therefore it's your own fault the drug increased your BP risk. If someone chooses not to wear a seat belt, they are at a higher risk of dying in a car wreck. If a drunk driver happens to run them down, is it still the fault of the guy not wearing the seat belt? Does the drunk driver hold any accountability? It's a good thing you are a drug rep and not a lawyer.

 

[Anonymous]

One of the reasons why they lost is because they didnt have a bladder cancer warning when Mr. Cooper started taking Actos in 2006. The Bladder Cancer Warning Was added on 2011 a little to late for him. Also Takeda try to downplay the risk of bladder cancer. Telling their sale Reps to not talk about bladder cancer to doctors unless they brought it up. In other words they weren't giving ADEQUATE information. They also delay Test results and gave them to the FDA much later. They didn't want their Product to be harm since itstheir most important drug. People have the right to know what they are taking and companys have to give an Adequate Warning and put Patient Safety First.