An Actos lawsuit has been added to the multidistrict litigation (MDL) or mass tort against Takeda Pharmaceuticals by a Philadelphia couple alleging that the type-2 diabetes medication caused bladder cancer.

Plaintiffs Marc and Lynn Album allege that the drug led Mr. Album to develop bladder cancer.

Mr. Album began taking Actos in 2003 and continued taking the drug through 2013. According to his Actos lawsuit, he was prescribed the type-2 diabetes medication by his physician and took it as directed.

In 2012, Album was diagnosed with bladder cancer. His Actos lawsuit alleges that the cancer was caused by Actos, that he had no reasonable way of knowing of this Actos side effect since Takeda Pharmaceuticals downplayed that risk, and he never would have used the drug had he been aware of the risk of Actos bladder cancer.

The Albums are seeking various damages stemming from Mr. Album’s bladder cancer.

The Actos Lawsuit is Marc Album, et al. v. Takeda Pharamaceuticals America Inc., et al., Case No. 1:14-cv-03828-JBS-KMW, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

The Actos MDL is In Re Actos (Pioglitazone) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2299, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

Actos, Type-2 Diabetes and Bladder Cancer

Actos is a drug designed to help control the symptoms of type-2 diabetes. In all forms of diabetes, the body has trouble regulating the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood. In type-2 diabetes, the patient’s body stops responding to the hormones that regulate blood sugar, leading to toxic levels of glucose in the blood stream.

This can damage various tissues, causing blindness and necrosis (cell death) throughout the body. Necrosis can require amputation when an extremity’s tissue begins to die off and become gangrenous.

Actos is designed to help the body respond to its own glucose-regulating hormones. However, it has been alleged that Actos may increase the risk of bladder cancer.

This allegation has been supported by research that links Actos to an increased risk of bladder cancer. The Albums’ Actos lawsuit — and similar bladder cancer lawsuits — have alleged that the makers of the drug were (or reasonably should have been) aware of the risk of bladder cancer associated with their drug.

Actos Class Action Lawsuits and Mass Torts

Takeda is currently facing Actos multidistrict litigation (MDL) or mass tort over the bladder cancer claims. MDLs are a type of group litigation, where individual lawsuits, like the Albums’ Actos bladder cancer lawsuit, are grouped together into a single legal proceeding.

MDLs are similar in some ways to the more familiar class action lawsuit. In both class action lawsuits and MDLs, a group of plaintiffs allege that they have suffered similar harm at the hands of the same defendant. Both MDLs and class action lawsuits are designed to help streamline the legal system by combining individual suits into a more streamlined legal proceeding.

The main difference is that class action lawsuits start out as group lawsuits, while MDLs start as individual lawsuits which are later grouped together. This makes MDLs more common in drug lawsuits than class action lawsuits, since individuals filing drug lawsuits are typically scattered across the country, making it hard for them to coordinate a class action lawsuit from the beginning. But often, these individual suits are similar enough to be grouped into an single MDL once they are filed.