In accordance to the 2011 National Diabetes release on January 26, 2011, 25.8 million children and adults in the United States alone are diagnoses with diabetes. Type 2- diabetes is responsible for nearly 95% of diabetes cases in the United States, according to the CDC.
Avandia was restricted in the United States because it was found to cause heart attacks. Actos became the popular drug after Takeda marketed Actos as a safer alternative to Avandia. Then it became the top prescribed drug in the United States, but in 2010, the (FDA) issued a warning stating that Actos patients were reporting that they developed bladder cancer while on the drug.
When a former employee of Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ wanted to report the cancer risk caused by Actos she was terminated.
Dr. Helen Ge, Knew if the Actos cancer risk, but Takeda refused to report it to the FDA. Dr. Ge’s whistleblower lawsuit against Takeda has been filed in the U.S District Court of Massachusetts.
District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor, who has been presiding over the filed case, issued an order to have the case to be unsealed; releasing to the public the allegation that Takeda’s knew about the cancer risk, and how it encouraged its employees to downplay the risks associated with Actos.
Despite the link between Actos and several forms of cancer, including pancreatic cancer, blood cancer, breast cancer, and gastrointestinal cancers, Dr Ge says she was asked to change her professional opinion about the side effects to down play the cancer risk.
How many times has a pharmaceutical company done this? From a consumer point of view, it makes me not want to take any medicine. We find out daily that in some way, shape or form they keep that knowledge to themselves. I guess risking a few to save many is their goals these days.
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