The makers of the diabetes drug Actos are under fire after patients discovered that the drug could cause bladder cancer. Takeda Pharmaceuticals America Inc. and related companies are being sued by many patients, including three men who said that they took Actos after their physicians prescribed the drug to treat their type-2 diabetes. The drug was an effective long-term way of battling with high blood sugar levels, but the men said that they were unaware that the drug would increase their likelihood of developing bladder cancer.

All three of the men developed bladder cancer and allege that the pharmaceutical companies who created the drugs hid the results of studies which showed that the drug was unsafe to take for more than a 12-month period.

Despite the pharmaceutical companies' desire to bury these unfavorable studies, the FDA conducted its own study into the safety of the drug in 2010 and found that the drug significantly increased the risk of bladder cancer. The pharmaceutical companies disputed the accuracy of the FDA study and continued to promote the drug as a safe way for diabetes sufferers to treat their high blood sugar levels.

Actos users say that the company intentionally concealed the dangers of the drug and continued to market this unsafe drug despite knowing that the dangers of the drug outweighed its benefits. The three men who filed one of the most recent Actos lawsuits say that they experienced pain and suffering, economic loss, and other damages arising out of the negligence and greed of the pharmaceutical companies. This most recent lawsuit seeks more than $50,000 in actual damages for each man in addition to punitive damages.

Source: Madison Record, "Takeda named in suits over use of diabetes drug Actos," Andrea Dearden, Feb. 2, 2012