Actos (Piaglitizone) is a drug used to treat those who suffer from Type 2 Diabetes and has been a wildly successful product as it has been the best selling drug of it’s kind.  Unfortunately it is also now known for causing bladder cancer in patients who have been taking Actos for over 1 year. This is a drug that has been banned in Europe but is still allowed to be sold and administered to patients here in the U.S. In September 2010, the FDA issued a warning regarding the link between Actos and cancer in those taking Actos for over 2 years. They updated their warning in 2011 saying that just one year of pioglitazone use raises bladder cancer risks by over 40%. That amounts to an extra 28 bladder cancer cases a year for every 100,000 people who are taking Actos. They also are now advising physicians to stop prescribing Actos to those who have had or do have bladder cancer. As a result of all this, Actos bladder cancer lawsuits are now springing up.

An increased risk in bladder cancer is not the only risk however when taking Actos. It has also been linked to heart failure, stroke, and blindness. Still, after all this, it became the leading Type 2 Diabetes drug in the world. This seems to be an obvious case of choosing “profits over people”. It has also been reported that Actos was causing bladder cancer in lap rats but you be assured that the physicians or patients never heard about these tests. After all, that would hurt the sales of the product right? Takeda Pharmeaceuticals, like so many other companies in this industry, failed to provide adequate warnings about the drug. How many patients would be willing to accept the increased risk of bladder cancer when there are many other alternatives out there? Probably not many and if this would have been more widely known to doctors, they no doubt would not be prescribing these Actos to their patients.  Takeda should be held accountable for failing to warn patients about the dangers of this drug. Makes you wonder, how many pharmaceutical companies out there know that their product is going to cause harm to patients who take it but don’t care because they know the profits they make selling these drugs will be much higher than any amount of money they need to pay in lawsuits and settlements?