Actos Cases Consolidated in Louisiana

Serving Alabama, Mississippi & Florida including Mobile, Pascagoula, Gulfport, Biloxi & Pensacola

Tue, 01/03/2012

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has ruled that all of the lawsuits claiming that Actos causes bladder cancer will be consolidated before one judge in federal court in Lafayette, Louisiana. Lafayette is the seat of the Western District of Louisiana federal court and Judge Rebecca Doherty will be handling the cases.

Actos is manufactured by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., which is Asia's biggest drugmaker. Last June, a study showed that the world's best selling diabetes medication increases the risk of developing bladder cancer. Actos was pulled off the market in Germany and France this year after the link to increased cancer risk was determined.

Takeda had requested that all of the cases be sent to the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, near some of the company headquarters. The Actos cases will now be transferred from all of the federal courts around the country where they are presently filed, and sent to the Louisiana court. Judge Doherty will coordinate all of the cases for gathering all of the evidence in the case and for all pre-trial proceedings.