Saturday, December 31, 2011

Takeda Actos Cancer Suits Combined in Louisiana Court, U.S. Panel Rules - Bloomberg

Lawsuits against Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. (4502), Asia’s biggest drugmaker, claiming its Actos diabetes drug causes bladder cancer will be consolidated before one judge in federal court in Louisiana, a judicial panel said.

The federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation sent the lawsuits to the Western District of Louisiana, in Lafayette, to be overseen by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Doherty. Doherty will coordinate pretrial proceedings, including evidence- gathering.

“Centralization in the Western District of Louisiana will serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and promote the just and efficient conduct of this litigation,” the panel ruled yesterday. It will also allow “the panel to assign the litigation to an experienced judge who sits in a district in which no other multidistrict litigation is pending.”

The lawsuits claim that patients who use Actos, a prescription drug approved for the use in treating type 2 diabetes, increases the risk of bladder cancer. The plaintiffs also claim that Takeda and co-defendant Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) withheld information about the risk and failed to provide adequate warnings.

Posted via email from Jack's posterous

1 comment:

TSL said...

thank you for sharing, it will be interesting to see how the case develops.