Maryland Trial Judge Overturns Plaintiff Verdict in Actos® Case

Posted in Actos® on September 26, 2013

A Maryland jury found that Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. did not properly warn Diep An, an ex-U.S. Army translator, and his doctor about the risks of its Actos® diabetes drug and ordered the company to pay more than $1.7 million in damages. The judge immediately threw out the Plaintiff’s verdict on a technicality based on Maryland law.

This is the second time a U.S. jury has found Takeda failed to adequately warn of the bladder cancer risks of Actos to its users. This is also the second time a judge has overturned a Plaintiff’s verdict against Takeda. Under Maryland law, if a Plaintiff is even one percent at fault, the Plaintiff cannot recover. An was a thirty year smoker – a factor that the jury found had some tendancy to contribute to his injuries. Takeda is currently facing more than 3,000 suits regarding its link to an increased risk of developing bladder cancer.

On April 26, 2013, a Los Angeles jury heard similar evidence against Takeda and ordered the drug company to pay $6.5 million in damages to a diabetic man who blamed the drug Actos for his bladder cancer. The family is currently appealing to judge’s overruling of the verdict.

Takeda argued that it provided adequate warnings about the drug’s risks, noting the approval of the FDA. In 2011, however, regulatory agencies in France and Germany ordered that product be suspended in new users after a study conducted by the French Medicines Agency found a statistically significant increased risk of bladder cancer in 155,000 patients taking Actos. Later in 2011, the FDA ordered Takeda to include a warning about the risk of bladder cancer in its label.