U.S.
District Judge Rebecca Doherty said Friday that Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.,
intentionally destroyed evidence
that would have helped the Plaintiffs in a $9 billion bellwether lawsuit over
claims the company hid the cancer risks of the diabetes drug Actos to keep
sales high.
The ruling follows Plaintiffs Terrence and Susan Allen’s April victory in the first federal jury decision in multidistrict litigation (MDL) against Asia’s largest drug company and its American partner, Eli Lilly & Co. For more information on the trial, see my previous blog posts.
Judge Doherty,
who had previously addressed Takeda’s conduct, said Takeda breached its
obligation to preserve certain information related to the Plaintiffs’ suit. She
stated that the intentionally destroyed documents were both relevant to the
case, and their absence was prejudicial to the Plaintiffs.
The decision
only impacts Takeda, and not Ely Lilly. She also deferred making any findings
about attorney misconduct until a later date. Judge Doherty also denied the
Plaintiffs Steering Committee request to issue a default judgment against
Takeda.
She did however
order Takeda to continue to attempt to reconstruct all the deleted
files. Until that process is done, the Judge stated she will defer making a
determination of attorneys’ fees. But she did allow the PSC to file a request
to shift to Takeda all costs, including attorneys’ fees, related to third-party
discovery that would not have been conducted except for Takeda’s bad-faith
conduct.
According to
the original complaint, the Plaintiffs alleged that even before Takeda applied
for approval from the FDA, it knew from the results of animal testing that Actos
could cause bladder cancer. Later, in the early 2000s, clinical trials in
humans had shown it would induce the cancer, the suit said.
Thousands of
lawsuits were filed over the drug’s allegedly carcinogenic side effects,
prompting more than 6,000 of them to be transferred to the MDL in the Western District of Louisiana.
Pittman, Dutton
& Hellums, P.C. is currently investigating Actos claims. If you or a loved
one were prescribed Actos and thereafter were diagnosed with cancer, please contact
Booth Samuels toll free at 1-866-515-8880 or by email at booths@pittmandutton.com.
