The first half of 2014 produced at least five product liability verdicts topping $100 million, underscoring not only the ongoing vigor of long-running asbestos disputes, but the impact that an acrimonious discovery dispute can have on verdict size, as it did with the $6 billion award against Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. Here is a list of all the product liability …
Testosterone Use Doesn’t Increase Heart Risk, Study Finds
A study of 24,000 Medicare patients found that testosterone therapy didn’t increase the risk of heart attack, contrary to several earlier studies, and that it even lowered the risk of heart attack by about 30% in the group of men judged most likely to have one based on other factors. The findings are a boost for proponents of testosterone therapy, …
SCOTUS Wants SG’s to Take On Generic-Drug Maker Liability
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday asked the solicitor general to weigh in on Teva Pharmaceutical USA Inc.’s challenge to a California appeals court finding that the generic-drug maker can be held liable for injuries because it did not immediately update its warning label to match the brand-name equivalent version. In June 2013 the California appeals panel gave the go …
Takeda, Lilly Say Prejudice Infected $9B Actos Verdict
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Eli Lilly & Co. argued Friday that the sheer size of the $9 billion punitive damages award they suffered in the bellwether personal injury trial over the diabetes drug Actos demonstrates the jury was inflamed by “passion and prejudice,” saying its verdict should be overturned. Reported as the seventh-largest punitive damages award in U.S. history, the April …
Burned in Federal Court, Takeda Hopes to Find Solace in State Courts Over Actos Drug
Word to the Wise: Plaintiffs should avoid state courts when suing Takeda over their diabetes drug Actos. Why? Because Takeda has been slammed with a $6 billion verdict and disciplined for destroying key evidence in federal court over Actos, but the drugmaker has found success in state courts by convincing juries that it adequately warned of the drug’s bladder cancer …
ACTOS UPDATE: Takeda Destroyed Evidence In Cancer Suit, Judge Says
A Louisiana federal judge said on Friday, June 20th, that Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. intentionally destroyed evidence that would have helped the plaintiffs in a $9 billion bellwether lawsuit over claims the company hid the cancer risks of diabetes drug Actos to keep sales high. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Rebecca Doherty follows plaintiffs Terrence and Susan Allen’s April …
Talcum Powder Like J&J’s Baby Powder Linked to Ovarian Cancer
Scientists have identified a disturbing link between ovarian cancer and talcum powder and other talcum-based products, which have been promoted for feminine hygiene uses in the U.S. and across the world for decades. A study published in the medical journal Cancer Prevention Research revealed a 24 percent increased risk of ovarian tumors among women who relied on talcum-based products for …
ACTOS UPDATE: (1) Eli Lilly Ducks Perjury Sanctions and (2) Blue Cross Sues Takeda & Eli Lilly
(1) Eli Lilly Ducks Perjury Sanctions In Actos Trial A federal judge on Wednesday declined to sanction Eli Lilly & Co. or subject a former executive to criminal investigation for zig-zagging on the stand during a bellwether trial alleging the diabetes drug Actos caused bladder cancer, saying the questionable testimony hadn’t stopped the plaintiffs from winning a $9 billion verdict. …
UPDATE: Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) Litigation
(1) NPR Discusses Testosterone & Potential Adverse Health Effects NPR recently discussed the popularity of testosterone replacement therapies, and how the The Food and Drug Administration is reassessing the safety of testosterone products. A spokesperson reiterated the agency’s own guidelines: None of the products approved by the FDA should be prescribed unless low testosterone is associated with a medical condition. …
Viagra May Increase Risk of Skin Cancer
Following the publication of a recent study that found a possible link between Viagra and melanoma skin cancer, it appears that Pfizer may face product liability lawsuits over the failure to adequately warn about the potential risks associated with their popular erectile dysfunction drug. According to a study published in this month’s issue of the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine, …
Pradaxa Litigation Set for Settlement
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its affiliated companies, and the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee appointed by a federal judge to coordinate litigation involving Pradaxa in In Re Pradaxa (Dabigatran Etexilate) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2385, today negotiated a settlement program to resolve the claims of approximately 4,000 Pradaxa users who claimed to have been injured by the drug. Pradaxa, an …
Takeda Wins Las Vegas Lawsuit Over Diabetes Drug Actos
A Nevada state jury found for Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. on Thursday after a months-long trial in which two elderly women claimed the company’s diabetes drug Actos causes bladder cancer, a victory that follows Takeda’s astounding $6 billion loss earlier this year in a federal suit over the same drug. The jury delivered its verdict after roughly two days …
ACTOS Updates
(1) Takeda Avoids Another Big Loss In Ill. Actos Cancer Trial A jury on Thursday cleared Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. of liability in the first trial among thousands of Illinois lawsuits blaming the diabetes drug Actos for causing bladder cancer, following a multibillion-dollar verdict against the drugmaker last month in Louisiana. The 12-member jury — seven men and five women …
115 of 117 Avandia Cases in MDL Dismissed Due to SOL Problems
U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe, a Pennsylvania federal judge, dismissed 115 out of 117 cases that GlaxoSmithKline LLC (GSK) argued were outside the statute of limitations in the multidistrict litigation over injuries caused by diabetes drug Avandia. The ruling was announced on May 16, 2014. Rufe said that all but two of the cases GSK claimed were outside the …
Bayer & Doctor Lose: Verdict Awards Injured Woman in Yasmin Lawsuit
A jury has awarded $14 million to a suburban Chicago woman who sued her doctor over a debilitating stroke she suffered after taking the birth control drug Yasmin. Lawyers for Mariola Zapalski, of Elmwood Park, say the stroke occurred 13 days after she began taking the drug, paralyzing her left side and causing permanent brain injury. Attorneys for the 37-year-old …
Actos Update: Las Vegas Judge Denies Attempt to Remove Herself
Actos continues to be in the news, and the national focus now shifts to the Actos trial in Las Vegas that our blog has reported on previously. A Las Vegas judge will not remove herself from a civil case filed by two women against the maker of the diabetes drug Actos. “I absolutely see no evidence that there’s any appearance …
Actos Verdict: Jury Orders Takeda, Eli Lilly To Pay Damages
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. and Eli Lilly & Co. were ordered to pay a combined $9 billion in punitive damages after a federal court jury found they hid the cancer risks of their Actos diabetes medicine in the first U.S. trial of its kind. Osaka, Japan-based Takeda was ordered to pay $6 billion by the jury yesterday in Lafayette, Louisiana. Its …
Actos Trial Continues in Nevada
After three and a half weeks of selecting a jury from a pool of 400 Clark County citizens, the Actos trial continues to play out in Las Vegas, Nevada. The case is noteworthy because the plaintiffs, Bertha Triana and Delores Cipriano, are seeking the largest jury award in Nevada history. Japanese pharmaceutical giant Takeda is accused of failing to inform …
“Low T” Case Filed in California Against Auxilium’s Testim Drug
A 58-year-old California man who suffered injuries after using the testosterone replacement therapy (“TRT”) drug Testim has sued manufacturer Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc., claiming it coordinated a massive ad campaign to aggressively promote the need for its product while failing to warn users of life-threatening side effects. In a Feb. 26 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District …
‘Low T’ Drug Cases Involving Abbott’s Androgel Could Be Next MDL, Mass Tort
Several products liability attorneys say that the recent appearance of lawsuits nationwide against the manufacturers of testosterone therapy drugs indicates the potential for multidistrict litigation and possibly a new mass tort. Many of the current suits filed in federal courts across the country are against Abbott Laboratories—maker of the topical testosterone therapy drug AndroGel and the anti-seizure medication Depakote. …
New Study Suggests GSK’s Paxil May Cause Breast Cancer
The Los Angeles Times is reporting how a team of researchers from the City of Hope in Duarte has developed a speedy way to identify drugs and chemicals that can disrupt the balance of sex hormones in human beings and influence the development and progress of diseases such as breast cancer. In a trial screening of 446 drugs in wide …
Study of Drug for Blood Clots Caused a Stir, Records Show
The New York Times is reporting Boehringer Ingelheim, makers of the blood-thinning drug Pradaxa, were so worried that an internal research paper would damage drug sales that some employees not only pressured the author to revise it, but suggested it should be quashed altogether, according to newly unsealed legal documents. The documents were made public last week by a federal …
Takeda Jury Can Hear Claims Over Destroyed Actos Files
Bloomberg News is reporting Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. must let a jury hear claims that it intentionally destroyed files related its Actos diabetes drug, a judge ruled before the first federal trial over allegations the pills cause bladder cancer. Officials of Osaka, Japan-based Takeda admitted they can’t find files compiled by 46 current and former employees involved with the development, marketing …
Takeda, makers of Actos, Scraps Development of Type 2 Diabetes Drug
Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda is dropping plans to develop diabetes drug fasiglifam (TAK-875) because clinical trials showed participants developed dangerous side effects, including possible liver damage. This comes as a blow for the drugmaker as it scrambles to find another drug to take the place of its once best-selling Type 2 diabetes drug Actos. Takeda lost patent protection for Actos …