Emma Dominick of Louisiana has filed an Actos lawsuit, joining the nationwide legal action against Takeda Pharmaceuticals, alleging that the diabetes drug caused her to develop bladder cancer.

Actos is a drug designed to help people with type-2 diabetes control their blood sugar. Type-2 diabetes is a prevalent condition in the United States, and can lead to serious side effects, including kidney failure, gangrene, and even death. In type-2 diabetes, the mechanisms that normally control blood sugar begin to break down as the body stops responding to hormones that help control blood sugar levels. However, it has been alleged in Actos lawsuits that the drug can cause life-threatening side effects, including an increased risk of bladder cancer.

Dominick’s  Actos lawsuit is not the first of its kind. Similar Actos lawsuits have made the allegation that the drug can cause bladder cancer. To support this allegation, Dominick’s Actos bladder cancer lawsuit cites several research studies and postmarket surveillance. Both have found that patients taking Actos had an increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes. The Actos lawsuit alleges that Takeda Pharmaceuticals, the makers of Actos, were aware, or reasonably should have been aware, of the risk of bladder cancer associated with their drug. The Actos lawsuit further alleges that not only was Takeda aware of the risks, but that they continued to actively promote the drug, endangering patients like Dominck.

The litigation against the makers of Actos have taken the form of a multi-district litigation (MDL) or mass tort. MDLs are a type of group lawsuit, similar to a class action lawsuit. Group lawsuits like MDLs and class action lawsuits allow a group of plaintiffs, who have allegedly suffered similar harm, to seek legal redress from the same defendant.

MDLs and class action lawsuits are designed to streamline the legal process by coordinating dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of individual plaintiffs into a single legal action. The main difference between an MDL and a class action lawsuit is that class action lawsuits start out as group lawsuits while MDLs start as separate individual lawsuits that are later coordinated into a single legal action.

This means that individual lawsuits within an MDL have a greater degree of autonomy within the larger MDL than the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit. It also makes MDLs more common for drug lawsuits, since the plaintiffs in drug lawsuits tend to have injuries that vary.

The Actos lawsuit is Emma Dominick v. Takeda Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., et al., Case No. 6:14-cv-00794-RFD-PJH, filed within the MDL In Re: Actos Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2299, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.