Bladder Cancer and Type 2 Diabetes
Of all the side effects of Actos, bladder cancer creates the most noise.
The said ruckus can be attributed to the fact that type 2 diabetes and bladder cancer together do not make an amusing picture. Both make the list of top 10 most fatal diseases in America.
In 2007, 231, 404 deaths were attributed to diabetes while 14, 680 deaths were attributed to bladder cancer in 2010. Added to this is the other truth about bladder cancer: the most expensive type of cancer to treat due to the high rate of recurrence.
With life and finances at stake, Actos lawsuits mount against Takeda the maker of the diabetes drug. According to plaintiff lawyers thousands of lawsuits are expected to be filed. A representative from Takeda said only around 200 lawsuits have been filed against the company as of January 2012.
Plaintiff lawyers are, however, positive that more lawsuits will be filed against Takeda and Eli Lilly Co., an Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company, which originally marketed Actos with Takeda. Thousands of Actos bladder cancer lawsuits in California and Illinois have yet to be moved before the office of District Judge Rebecca Doherty of the Western District of Louisiana. All Actos claims should be consolidated in the said federal court.
In June 2011, after being presented with convincing evidence from the study being conducted by the Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) required Takeda to update Actos label and insert revealing the 40 percent increased risk of developing bladder cancer for use of the drug for longer than one year.
The said requirement, which has been approved two months later, gave way to Actos users to file legal claims against Takeda.
According to the FDA, in the three-year trial, 0.44 (16/3656) percent of participants taking Actos developed bladder cancer while 0.14 percent (5/3679) for those participants taking placebo or glyburide.
If you used or are using Actos and you have developed bladder cancer, call our Actos lawyers now to answer any of your questions about Actos, its link to bladder cancer, FDA updates, and Actos lawsuits. Do not wait too long or else you will lose your right for compensation. The law limiting the duration to file an injury claim may work against you. Do not hesitate to seek help, contact us, now!
At this time, Actos is still available in the U.S. market without restriction and is still the top-selling diabetes drug with total sales of $3.4 billion in 2011.
Actos has also been linked to bone fracture, damages to the kidney (rhabdomyolysis) and the liver, heart problems, and death.
Physicians began prescribing Actos after a series of studies determined Avandia’s heart risk only to find out later that it causes the same problems. Avandia is another diabetes drug, which like Actos, belongs to thiazolidinediones (TZDs), a class of medicine used to ease effects of Type 2 diabetes. However, it has not been linked to bladder cancer.