Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.'s Actos Diabetes Drug Tied to Cancer, Jury is Told

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. (4502), Asia’s biggest drugmaker, hid the cancer risks of its Actos drug to protect billions in sales, a jury was told in the first of more than 3,000 lawsuits over the diabetes medication to go to trial. While Takeda’s internal Actos studies uncovered links to bladder cancer as early as 2004, the company didn’t alert U.S. regulators until seven years later, Michael Miller, a lawyer for plaintiff Jack Cooper, told a state court jury in Los Angeles yesterday. The company kept quiet to protect more than $1.6 billion in annual Actos sales, he added. “Selling diabetes drugs is big business in America,” Miller said in closing arguments in the trial of Cooper’s suit against Takeda.