Diabetes: More than 1.7 million prescriptions for the drug have been filled in Australia over the past four years.
Australian victims of a popular diabetes drug that has been linked to bladder cancer will join a US class action suing the makers of the drug.
Tens of thousands of Australians are thought to have taken the diabetes drug Actos, which has been linked to a 40 per cent increased risk of bladder cancer.
Law firm Maurice Blackburn said it would join a class action against Takeda and Eli Lilly, the co-manufacturers and distributors of the drug.
Maurice Blackburn Principal Damian Scattini said the companies had behaved “terribly”.
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“They knew before they even released the drug that it had a tendency to induce tumours in rats but they proceeded irrespective of that,” he said.
International studies have found the main ingredient of Actos, pioglitazone, causes an increased risk of bladder cancer after patients have been taking it for between one and two years.
He said the legal case about the drug, held in California, had resulted in the jury awarding $6.5 million dollars in compensation to victims, before the judge overturned the decision on technical grounds.
“Initial signs look very good for this case,” he said. “The science is terrible for the defendant and what they did is terrible”.
The law firm is initially joining the action on behalf of one patient, Brisbane man Peter Marshall, but has since been contacted by other patients.
More than 1.7 million prescriptions for the drug have been filled in Australia over the past four years, Medicare figures show.
Australia's drug regulator in 2011 issued a warning about pioglitazone, stating: “use of ... pioglitazone, for more than a year may be associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer”. At that time it said it was undertaking a comprehensive review of the data and would provide more information to consumers when this was completed.
The warning caused prescriptions to drop from nearly 437,000 in 2011 to just over 378,800 in 2012.
Mr Scattini said consumers in France and Germany were no longer exposed to the drug as it had been taken off the market, and in America a black-box warning said long-term use was linked to bladder cancer.
But in Australia and New Zealand the drug was still available and in-packet warnings were weaker.
“I don't know why Australians are not entitled to the same protection as other first world countries,” he said
Actos is not the first diabetes drug to be linked to serious health problems.
The manufacturer of the diabetes drug Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline, has paid out more than $460 million to settle thousands of personal-injury lawsuits after it was accused of not revealing links between Avandia and heart attacks.
A spokeswoman for the TGA said it had published information on its website and in the consumer product information for Actos explaining the link with bladder cancer.
This information said “pioglitazone should not be used in patients with bladder cancer or a history of bladder cancer [and] the risk of bladder cancer should be considered in the care of all patients treated,” she said.
She added that the risks and benefits of using any drug should be discussed by patients with their doctor.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/australians-to-join-multimillion-dollar-diabetes-drug-class-action-lawsuit-20130520-2jvs1.html#ixzz2TrjVL9yi
Graham
4 comments:
“They knew before they even released the drug that it had a tendency to induce tumours in rats but they proceeded irrespective of that,” he said.Yes I know it was in rats but they knew this drug was highly suspect and still they went ahead. Sadly there are still some 'black box' drugs out there. I wish the Australians well in there lawsuit wait to hear the result. Thanks for posting this Graham. Regards Roy T
Hi Roy
I too hope the lawsuit is successful, Actos is just one of many drugs that have been implicated in lawsuits in recent years, with more new diabetes drugs in the pipeline I expect there be more cases in the future.
Cheers
Graham
In a slightly different context did you know that boys are 5 times more likely to be medicated for behavioural issues than girls and the rate of prescription for amphetamines for children (boys) has risen by 7000% in the last decade. ADHD is medicated with stimulants! This is crazy.
How to medicate masculinity - a growth industry.
The outcome is not the issue (whether good or bad) the medication is the issue and the sole focus of these companies appears to be how much of this stuff can we shift before people get wise to it?
This is depressing stuff.
Dillinger
@Dillinger
This is depressing and the percentage increase you quote almost unbelievable, but I am sure you are correct. It seems that more and more children are being given drugs to "treat" a whole array of illnesses. They are a whole new money making business, it is so sickening, perhaps not the correct word to use! It is wrong, children deserve better treatment and more respect.
Where will it all end?
Kay
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