An Actos attorney may be able to help consumers recover compensation for medical expenses related to bladder cancer, a condition that has been linked to this type-2 diabetes medication.

Takeda Pharmaceuticals has faced over 10,000 lawsuits regarding Actos side effects. These Actos lawsuits claim that the medication increases the risk for developing bladder cancer by 40 percent.

Approximately half of the Actos lawsuits were consolidated into a multidistrict litigation in Louisiana. The other lawsuits were filed in various state courts around the country.

Many consumers involved in these lawsuits contacted an Actos attorney after experiencing numerous conditions after taking the diabetes drug. The most controversial condition associated with Actos is bladder cancer, but other conditions reported include congestive heart failure, liver failure, chronic kidney disease, bone fractures, and lactic acidosis.

The risks for bladder cancer are allegedly well known. In 2011, regulators in Germany and France ordered a stop to Actos prescriptions after a French study linked the drug to an increased risk for bladder cancer. Other studies revealed that the longer a patient was on Actos and the higher their dosage was, the higher their chance to develop bladder cancer was.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also took action regarding the results of studies, requiring Takeda to include an updated warning on the drug’s labeling saying that Actos “may be associated with a 40% increased risk of bladder cancer”.

Actos lawsuits allege that Takeda and Eli Lilly, the drug’s marketer, were aware of the risks for bladder cancer associated with their product, but chose not to warn the public.

“The results were devastating—many thousands of patients ended up developing bladder cancer and the Defendants made billions,” one lawsuit claimed.

These claims are supported by a 2012 lawsuit filed by a former Takeda employee with the assistance of an Actos attorney. The former Takeda employee, who worked as a safety consultant in the pharmacovigilance division, claimed that the company knew Actos was linked to several cancers including bladder cancer. Jurors for the lawsuit concluded in 2014 that Takeda had destroyed relevant files linking Actos to bladder cancer and ordered the company to pay $155,000.

Nine lawsuits went to trial before Takeda announced that it would settle many of the lawsuits they faced. In 2015, Takeda settled around 9,000 Actos lawsuits for $2.4 billion. This settlement also resolved seven of the previous nine lawsuits which went to trial before the settlement was announced.

Now that the Actos multidistrict litigation has been finalized in a settlement, consumers can still contact an Actos attorney to evaluate their eligibility to file an individual Actos bladder cancer lawsuit.

If you are a loved one developed bladder cancer after taking Actos, you can speak to a qualified Actos attorney about filing a lawsuit and recovering compensation for medical expenses, pain and suffering, wrongful death, and more.