In recent months, reports and studies have shown a possible connection with Actos and bladder cancer risk. Those patients who have been taking this drug for longer than a year face a greater risk of developing bladder cancer, a condition which can be fatal.

Many patients taking a popular medication allege that the manufacturer failed to inform them about the Actos bladder cancer risk. Those diabetic patients say that they took the medication without knowledge of the Actos bladder cancer risk that could put them in line for the serious medical condition.

Symptoms of bladder cancer can include painful or frequent urination, blood in the urine, abdominal pain, weight loss, and fatigue. A patient who does not know about the potential for Actos bladder cancer can mistake these for symptoms of a less serious medical condition, possibly losing out on critical treatment options.

What is Actos?

Actos is a type-2 diabetes medication that has been connected in numerous studies to bladder cancer. Takeda, the drug maker of Actos, has faced numerous lawsuits regarding Actos bladder cancer risk.

Patients who have chosen to take legal action say that the manufacturer had a responsibility to tell patients about all potential side effects, especially Actos bladder cancer risk, before initiating prescriptions. Other individuals who took Actos to treat their type-2 diabetes and ultimately developed bladder cancer may also be eligible to take legal action regarding the Actos bladder cancer risk.

An Actos settlement was reached with Takeda in 2015, yielding billions of dollars for patients. At that point in time, there were more than 9,000 bladder cancer lawsuits, alleging that the manufacturer failed to warn about these serious side effects.

Actos Studies and FDA Findings

In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration released their own findings about Actos bladder cancer risk. During that same year, based on provisional results of a 10-year Actos study, the FDA requested that the manufacturer include the Actos bladder cancer risk warning on the drug’s label.

The request was based on provisional findings because, while the study was only at the five-year mark of the decade long study, there were already indications that patients taking the drug faced an Actos bladder cancer risk. In patients where the medication was taken at a high dosage and when it had been taken for a long period of time, the risk of developing bladder cancer was much higher.

Following that initial release of study results concerning Actos bladder cancer risk, another study also identified a higher risk of developing bladder cancer based on the time of usage and the overall dosage.

Actos lawsuits were filed by those individuals who had been diagnosed with bladder cancer or by family members who had lost their loved ones due to the diagnosis of bladder cancer. In a 2014 trial, Takeda and Eli Lilly, who assisted with marketing the drug, were ordered to pay $9 billion in punitive damages, although that award was later reduced to $36.8 million.