Type-2 diabetes is one of the fastest growing chronic diseases in the United States, so it’s no surprise that there’s a plethora of drugs on the market to treat it. However, some of these drugs, including Januvia and Byetta, have been linked to serious complications like pancreatic cancer and thyroid cancer.

Married couple Joseph and Sherrie Velilla filed a Byetta lawsuit on Nov. 27, 2013, claiming that they never told about the full risks associated with Byetta side effects. According to their Byetta lawsuit, Joseph began taking the drug in September 2005 and continued to take it until April 2012. Joseph was reportedly diagnosed with thyroid cancer in January 2011.

Both Januvia and Byetta, manufactured by Eli Lilly and Amylin Pharmaceuticals, are in the same family of drugs. Eli Lilly and Amylin have been hit with a growing number of lawsuits from people who say they took these drugs and suffered serious complications.

“Due to the flawed formulation of Byetta, it increases the risk of thyroid cancer in those diabetic patients to whom it is prescribed,” the Byetta lawsuit says. “Despite undeniable knowledge of the risk, and with full appreciation of the deadly side-effects posed by ingesting Byetta, Defendants concealed their knowledge that Byetta can cause life threatening thyroid cancer from Plaintiff, other consumers, the general public, and the medical community. Indeed, the Defendants who manufacture and market Byetta never even mentioned ‘thyroid cancer’ in their product’s inserts.”

According to the couple, “The current warnings for the Drug are simply inadequate, especially in light of the warnings made by competing drugs within Byetta’s own drug family. The Defendants have failed and continue to fail in their duties to warn and protect the consuming public, including the Plaintiff herein. Even if the warnings were sufficient, which Plaintiff strongly denies, Byetta still lacks any benefit sufficient to tolerate the extreme risk posed by the ingestion of the Drug. Other drugs to treat diabetes are available. Byetta is quite simply too dangerous and defective as formulated. The Defendants should withdraw Byetta from the market.”

They claim that the drugmaker acted irresponsibly. “With full knowledge of the true relationship between use of Byetta and thyroid cancer, rather than taking steps to pull the Drug off the market or provide strong warnings, Defendants promoted and continue to promote Byetta as safe and effective treatments for adults with type 2 diabetes.”

With so many diabetes drugs on the market, the Velillas could have been prescribed a different medication for Joseph’s condition, one that wasn’t linked to cancer. However, they claim that Byetta was just too profitable for Eli Lilly to resist.

Patients and the medical community alike count on drugmakers to be diligent, forward and transparent with their warnings and research. However, the plaintiffs allege that the “Defendants willfully, wantonly, and with malice withheld the knowledge of increased risk of thyroid cancer in users of Byetta to prevent any chances of their product’s registration being delayed or rejected by FDA (U.S. Food & Drug Administration). As the manufacturers and distributors of Byetta, Defendants knew or should have known that the Drug’s usage was associated with thyroid cancer.”

The silver lining is that thyroid cancer, when caught early, has an exceptionally high survival rate. Even those who aren’t diagnosed until they’re in the last stage, stage four, have a 50 percent survival rate. However, that is little comfort for Byetta thyroid cancer victims like this couple. Even if a person achieves full remission it’s not without permanent wear and tear to the body and exceptionally high medical bills, sometimes even for those who are fully insured.

Working together, the couple is committed to seeing this challenge through. They claim that the “Defendants departed from and failed to meet requirements of laws, regulations and class and product specific requirements including failing to undertake adequate post approval marketing studies on safety of the Drug as dictated by good pharmaceutical science standards. Defendants both over-promoted the Drug and under-warned about its risks.”

The Byetta cancer lawsuit is Joseph Velilla and Sherrie Velilla v. Amylin Pharmaceuticals, et al., Case Number 3:13-cv-02826-AJB-MDD, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.