Bloomberg News (4/16, Reitman, Milford, Feeley) reports that although Takeda Pharmaceutical Company’s “internal Actos [pioglitazone] studies uncovered links to bladder cancer as early as 2004, the company” did not report the findings to the US Food and Drug Administration “until seven years later, Michael Miller, a lawyer for plaintiff Jack Cooper, told a state court jury in Los Angeles” on Monday. Takeda “kept quiet to protect more than $1.6 billion in annual Actos sales. …. ‘Selling diabetes drugs is big business in America,’ Miller said in closing arguments.” Today, defense lawyers for Takeda are scheduled to present their closings arguments in what was the “first of more than 3,000” related lawsuits, which means the jury could start deliberations either today or Wednesday.
