A New Hampshire woman has filed a Byetta lawsuit against Amylin Pharmaceuticals, alleging that the type-2 diabetes drug led to her thyroid cancer.

Susan Laflotte began taking Byetta in September 2006 until about June 2008. In December 2010, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and “suffered severe physical, economic, and emotional injuries” as a result.

“Plaintiff was unaware that Plaintiff’s injuries were caused by the Drug until within three (3) years prior to the filing of this complaint,” the Byetta thyroid cancer lawsuit states.

Laflotte alleges that Amylin intentionally hid the full risks of Byetta side effects. The New Hampshire woman says she was never aware that Byetta was linked to thyroid cancer, and says the drug maker knew or should have known of that connection well before the drug was even available to the public.

“Had Plaintiff and/or Plaintiff’s physician been properly warned by Defendants regarding the risk of thyroid cancer from usage of these prescription medications,Plaintiff’s physician would have not prescribed Byetta and Plaintiff would never have ingested this prescription medication,” the Byetta lawsuit states.

There are a number of Type-2 diabetes medications on the market, including Byetta and Januvia, that have been linked to thyroid cancer.

“Byetta is a member of a recently approved class of therapeutic agents for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor(GLP-1R) agonists, which exert their actions through potentiation of incretinreceptor signaling. Incretins are gut-derived hormones, which inhabit thyroid tissue, principally GLP-1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP), and are secreted at low basal levels in the fasting state,” the Byetta lawsuit explains.

“Byetta was approved by the FDA in April of 2005 and was marketed to the medical community and general public shortly thereafter. In January 2010, the FDA approved Victoza, another member of the new GLP-1 class of drugs. As members of the same drug class, Byetta and Victoza act similarly in the human body.”

When Victoza was approved by the FDA, it came with a “black box” warning that “Victoza ’causes thyroid C-cell tumors at clinically relevant exposures in rodents. It is unknown whether Victoza causes thyroid Ccell tumors, including mendullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), in humans, as human relevance could not be determined by clinical or nonclinical studies…Victoza’s GLP-1 counterpart, Byetta, wholly fails to mention thyroid cancer in the warning section of its label, despite the Byetta label’s admission that, ‘Benign thyroid C-cell adenomas were observed in female rats at all exenatide doses.’”

With so many diabetes medications available, Laflotte claims she would have chose a safer drug had Amylin been forthcoming with the Byetta risks.

“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, theDefendants who manufacture and market Byetta never even mentioned ‘thyroid cancer’ in their product’s inserts,” Laflotte alleges.

To this day, the New Hampshire woman struggles with the residual effects of the experience.

“As a further direct and proximate result of the said conduct of the Defendants, and each of them, Plaintiff suffered a loss of income, wages, profits and commissions, a diminishment of earning potential, and other pecuniary losses, the full nature and extent of which are not yet known to Plaintiff; and leave is requested to amend this complaint to conform to proof at the time of trial,” she claims.

Laflotte’s charges against Amylin include failure to warn, design defect, negligence, breach of warranties, negligent misrepresentation, violation of the New Hampshire consumer protection laws, fraudulent concealment and punitive damages.

Byetta Class Action Lawsuit, Personal Injury Lawsuits Grow

Claims like Laflotte’s are so common that they’ve been consolidated into a single litigation similar to a class action lawsuit, called a multidistrict litigation or MDL, also known as a Mass Tort. In a Byetta class action lawsuit, all the class members can join onto the same lawsuit as others with similar injuries. In a Mass Tort, everyone files individual lawsuits. Pharmaceutical drug and medical device lawsuits are usually treated as a Mass Tort, as opposed to a Byetta class action lawsuit, because the injuries can vary, making a single class unrealistic.

Mass Tort litigation allows one attorney or a group of attorneys the ability to represent clients with similar injuries as well as pool together resources that can be used and shared by all clients just like in a class action lawsuit.

However, unlike a class action lawsuit, there is no cap as to how much the settlement award can be in a MDL.

The Byetta Thyroid Cancer Lawsuit is Susan Laflotte v. Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Case No.: 3:13-cv-02817-AJB-MDD, in the U.S. District Court Southern District of California.